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Published: January 30th 2007
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Lake Titicaca
Sitting on the top of the mountain at sunset Okay so after the fun and debauchery of Cuzco, came a trip to a place with the funniest name in the world. Bart Simpson found it funny, and so do I. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, and it sure is bloody high, sitting at around 3700m above sea level. We parked our arses at the lakeside town of Puno, which is on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca and organized to take a 2 day, 1 night trip out to some of the islands in the nearby vicinity. This included a home stay with a family for the night, where you slept in their family accommodation with home cooked meals etc etc.
We booked our tour through a company called Kingdom Travel, who MUST NEVER be used by any traveler reading this again. We got scammed into paying a higher price for what was meant to be a more authentic, amazing experience, but in reality, it was exactly the same as what everyone else got who had paid half the money. They say you haven’t traveled South America unless you have been scammed numerous times, and as this was our first, I think we’ve been
Lake Titicaca
With our new found american buddies doing pretty well.
We jetted off on our small boat carrying about 30 people, amidst rumors of scabies infested home {look it up….it doesn’t sound like something too pleasant} and headed to the Uros Islands first. These islands are famous as they are made primarily of reeds, and they float above the water. As the reeds disintegrate, they are replaced by the locals, so that is a continually evolving process. The locals also supposedly live in reed huts and eat reeds in their meals etc etc. These islands were interesting, but just so goddam touristy it wasn’t funny, and personally, I couldn’t wait to get off. What made it all the more insulting was that behind the reed huts were metal houses with satellite televisions etc which I’m sure the islanders lived in the moment us tourists left the island. That’s tourism for you I guess!
From there we headed out on the lake for around 3 hours, to the next island, named Amantani {sp}. This is where we were to stay the night. We met our host family {mother, father, and six children} and headed to our place. Our family and accommodation were superb. They were so
Lake Titicaca
With our homestay family. I dont have my finger up on purpose welcoming, and cooked us some of the most delicious, yet basic meals I have had. Rice and potatoes never tasted so good. Neither had the satay pasta dish that night that had me running for the outhouse to vomit! No matter where you go, there’s always someone lurking with a peanut dish!
That afternoon we hiked up a hill {god I feel like I have said that a thousand times now} to watch the sunset from the highest point on the island, which was spectacular. We got some amazing photos. What amazed me also was that even up at the top of the mountain, at around 4100m above sea level, there were still some ladies and children up there selling jumpers, beanies, scarves and finger puppets to the tourists! They just don’t miss a trick over here that’s for sure.
That night was the highlight of the trip. THE LOCAL DANCE! Here we got dressed up in all the local garb, including ponchos for the guys, and the full on skirt, blouse, belt etc for the ladies, and went to the community hall and danced away to the local band. It was incredibly cheesy, but also incredibly fun.
Lake Titicaca
Josh on Taquile Island I’ve never enjoyed dancing with an 80 year old woman as much as I did that night. Sorry Grandma.
The next day we rose bright and early and headed to the 3rd island of the trip, Taquille. I’m sure it was nice, but after an hour on the boat over there in blustery conditions, with people vomiting over the side, I didn’t take much notice of the scenery upon arrival. I did have some kid make me buy a bracelet off her {she tied it on my wrist as I was standing there saying no}, but apart from that the island was quite uneventful.
We did have lunch here though, and managed to catch up with some friends of mine who I had met months early in Bariloche {shout out to Derval and Tom} and then we hit up the boat for an excruciatingly slow and boring 4 hour boat ride back to Puno. All in all it was a great experience, and it will be all the better if I don’t get scabies in the next couple of weeks.
The next day, we jumped on a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia where we were to hang out
Lake Titicaca
Our homestay dad getting the fire started! at for a few days. We were welcomed to the Bolivian way of doing things almost instantly when we discovered the bus was overbooked by 3 people, and instead of organizing for them to go on a later bus, the driver got 3 wooden stools, and put them in the aisles for these poor suckers to sit in.
I am way behind in the blogs, as we are now in La Paz, but I am going to try update in the next couple of days as we are stuck here due to me developing a case of bronchitis! Lucky me.
Stay tuned for more tales from the deep!
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Caroline
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Scabies
just read some stuff about scabies.....hhuummm when are you coming to london?