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Published: August 30th 2005
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well its been one adventure after another recently. Early to rise and we were on our way to the floating islands on Lake titicaca, most impresssive! The Islands actually float!! There are reeds packed together to form a base, and the roots of the reeds float hence keeping the island from sinking, the only thing keeping it in one place are stakes going directly through the island. The views from the island were lovely but unfortuantly the islands are so over comercialised it kind of spoils it, although we did get to buy some lovely lovely tourist goods!!
After a while on one floating island the natural progression was to go to the next floating island...the one with a phone box on it! Where we photographed a lady making bread who then demanded some money! then encountered some singing primary school children...who also demanded money!
The next leg of our journey was a bit tougher - an hour boat ride to a bigger island, which was always in the same place. We got to the Island and everyone was allocated a ´family´ to live with for the night, We ended up with the family whose house was farthest up the hill!!!
Needless to say at this altitude it took a while to get there, when we did get there we were greated by our host ´mother´ a 23 year old lady who had lived on the island her whole life, her 26 year old husband and the two incredibly cute children, with the longest eyelashes we have ever seen!
After relaxing a bit in our room, with only a candle for light, we went into the families mudhut kitchen for a lovely home cooked meal of soup and vegatables before meeting the rest of our group (yes the majority had The North Face bags, underwear etc!) in the main square.
In the main square we happened upon a party where some men (at 2 in the afternoon) were incredibly incredibly drunk! But having the time of their life it appeared!
After a long, tiring walk accross the island we found our way back to the main square where our family picked us up for dinner which was another wholesome meal of soup, rice, and pasta (carbohydrates seem to appear on every menu more than once!!). After letting our dinner go down in our room our ´host mother´ knocked at the door
and presented us with traditional Cholita outfits for us (well, me. Dom got a poncho and hat) to wear to a party that evening.
And what a party that was! Of course all of the Islanders wanted to dance with dom and of course Dom being the dancer he is was a very willing partner! By 10pm we were so danced out (dancing at this altitude is harder than it looks!) we called it a night and danced our way home, Dom in his poncho and hat, me in my huge skirt and extremly tight belt! I dont know how the women wear it all of the time, although i could get used to it, apart from the fact the skirt was so big i could harldy fit in a chair!!
The next day was another boat ride to another island where we had lunch of yet more trout and wallked down 500 steps before the 3 hour boat ride back to Puno; and surprisingly nobody was sea sick!
Well tomorrow we are off on yet another adventure; but thats a bit of a surprise and you will hear all about it when we get back from it!!!
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Cousin Matt
non-member comment
Im in the mood for dancing
Looks like you guys are having fun. I do like doms tea cosy hat and laura you look simply divine. Hey Laura if you look with both eyes slightly closed you look the spitting image of nan box in that traditional peruvian outfit. bye bye matty