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Published: March 9th 2012
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Hi again,
So back to Lake Titicaca! The lake is home to many islands, some within Peru and some within Bolivia. The biggest island is Isla Del Sol in Bolivia and the second biggest is Amantani which I will tell you more about later.
The first stop after half an hour on the lake was the Uros Islands. This are not natural islands, instead they are man-made. The islands are made from a reed called Tortura which grows in the shallow areas of the lake. The islanders create these floating islands by using the root base as the foundations and then literally piling up layers of reeds on top. At any given time, they estimate the depth of the island to be about 2 metres, that is 2 metres of reeds and roots. As the bottom of the island begins to rot away, a new layer of reeds is placed on top of the island, this is done every fortnight to ensure that the island stays firm. There are lots of these islands in the shallow area of the lake, however they never know how many as when the families on the islands disagree with others, the islands are
cut up and become separate ones, equally when people make new friendships the islands can be joined together - crazy but true! The tortura reed is incredibly important for these people as it is used to build their islands, their boats, their homes and part of it is even used as food. I tasted a little but honestly it tasted like celery so I did not have much!
We stayed a short while on the strangely bouncy Uros Islands, they feel like you are walking on a water bed the whole time, in some places you could even feel the dampness from the water coming through. We met the President of one of the bigger islands and he talked to us about his family and way of life. He explained that his children go to the primary school on the floating islands however when they reach secondary age they have to sail back to the mainland for school. The reed boats that they have are used as fishing boats in the morning and then later as school buses. The visit to the reed islands was really interesting, I still can not really explain to you how strange it is
wandering around on an island basically made of straw but hopefully the photographs will help.
The next stop was the beautiful Amantani Island which was such an amazing experience that I know I will not be able to do it justice here. We sailed for another three hours before reaching what essentially looks like a mountain in the middle of the sea. The Amantani island is a very special island as the leader and the community have come together to offer night stays with the families of the island so that a hotel does not need to be built. Having spent justa day and night there, I know that they ahve done the best thing for the island the residents as a hotel would really spoil the serenity of the place.
As we landed we were met by our host family, we were looked after by a lady called Victoria and her three children. They have a beautiful home which has 3 electric lights, these are powered by solar panels on their roof and are a luxury on the Island which has no running water, no cabled electricity and no roads. Victoria introduced us to her children and
then prepared a beautiful vegetarian lunch, most of the time they do not eat meat as the island is not a good ground for cattle menaing that their access to meat is limited.
We booked our tour through a company which is working with the islanders to improve the prospects of the children that live there. One of their main projects is building libraries and encouraging the children to read more. After lunch we visited one of these tiny but important libraries and spent time with some of the local children, helping them with their reading and with their pronunuciation of english which they are keen to learn and practice. The children were very shy with us, and seemed so very different to the girls from the orphanage. At the orphanage the girls are used to foreigners coming and going and so are not as scared of newcomers whereas on the Island the children are still a bit unsure of strangers, it is the hope of the company that we went with that the children will become more comfortable around people from other countries as time goes on as the founders of the company believe that this will help
them to do better in the future. In some ways I am sure that they are right but in other ways the life that the Islanders have seems to be a far better quality than that of some of England. It is one to think about...
Later that afternoon, we set about climbing up a very big hill, I am even going to call it a mountain. Combining my fear of heights and my fear of exercise, it was a real challenge! However, I made it to the top and the views across the enormous lake were more than worth it, as was the feeling of success! The journey down was much quicker, which was just as well as night fell very suddenly just 10 minutes after we arrived back at Victoria's home. On an island without streetlights, there is no light pollution at all and it is very, very dark indeed. The darkness was accompanied by a thunderstorm, the likes of which I have not seen before and the sound of hailstones on a corrugated metal roof makes conversation in any language very difficult.
The night was yet young though and the islanders had organised a party
for all of the visitors. We dressed in the traditional costumes of the Islanders, on loan to us from Victoria, and we headed out with torches to guide us to a small building which serves as the village hall. There, we danced (as much as we could at 3, 800m above sea level) and enjoyed the music from a small local band. Absolutely shattered we went back to Victoria's and spent avery comfortable if rainy night!
Morning came and after a lovely breakfast of bread, jam and tea made from munya we headed down the hill and met the boat for the next stage of our journey. By the way munya is a herb that grows in the Andes and is thought to help combat the problems of the high altitude, it tastes sort of minty and eucalyptus like, very nice.
The final island in our visit was Taquile. We hiked up to the main square from the port and then spent a lesiurely few hours looking at the craft stalls, eating a very filling lunch and enjoying the peace and the beautiful scenery. Taquile was not as mysterious as Amantani and has embraced the tourism in a completely different way. Where Amantani sought to protect their culture and teach the visitors of their way of life, Taquile has taken more of a sad, commericalised seaside approach with an awful lot of restaurants and unappealing hostels. It was very interesting to be able to compare the two islands, fortunately Taquile also boasted beautiful views of the lake which saved it!
Later that day we took the 3 hour boat ride back to the mainland and then boarded the night bus to return to Cusco. With horizontal seats, the night bus was a comfortable ride but honestly I am really starting to miss my own bed in MK!
Apologies for the length of this entry, it has taken me days to write but hopefully it has been worth it. I am now in Brazil but have one more entry about Peru to share with you, fingers crossed, it will appear soon!
Take care,
Tasha
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Vicky
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Hey Tash, This is my favourite blog yet, sounds like an experience of a life time, I hope your enjoying Brazil as much as peru!