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Published: July 28th 2012
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Coming back from Machu Picchu was long. After getting there at 6am, we stayed till about midday and then took the 1000 steps , that I´d neglected to go up earlier (it was still a bit hard actually, ha). WE then, incredibly tired as we were after 4 days of constant walking upppp and doooown, and upppp and doooown, and actually the most tiring and blister creating bit of all, the time when we just walked alooooooooong, just wanted to go to a bed. Any bed. However, our train back to Ollytaytamboo (some of those letters may not be correct) wasn´t until 6.45 so we basically just had to hang around for hours. Which is when I last blogged.Did i say all this already? Ah whatever - you´re only skim reading anyway aren´t you hmm?
The train ride back was interesting. I learnt many things that made the journey even more enjoyable.... for example, I learnt that on the Salkantay Trek, the loud American girl sitting opposite me had sex in a tent for the second time. I also learnt that the loud American girl sitting next to had her lost her virginity to a boy named Chris, which was
Isla Taquile.... pretty eh?
Fancy living here till you´re 100? the reason he was still hanging around her. She did not achieve orgasm. It was at this stage i prayed to the iPod God for extra battery life, and plugged myself in.....
We finally got back to Cusco in time for a quick nap before our bus to Puno, some 7 hours away. You know what, it was actually pretty nice.. not only did i get a little sleep on the comfy recliner chairs (just a ittle mind... God I miss sleep) but as we were sat at the front up top the panaoramic views of the andscape were really quite incredible. Its just so dry! It looks in a lot of way like outback South Australia, but with more mountains, and er, Peruvians. Out in their funny hats, labouring in the sun, doing their washing in the river, paying absolutely no attention to double decker buses coming towards them...
I do realy enjoy the imagery of south and central america - i have no idea why! I bloody love ramshackle buildings totally covered in painted adverts for politicians or football teams or bread (i think. Whatever - it looked cool).
Anyway, we got to Puno, which
is the gateway to the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca - the worlds largest (ahem navigable... yeh, read the small print) lake. Today we went on a day trip to the Uros floating islands and Isla Taquile. When I started this blog about ten minutes ago i thought I had learnt a lot about these people then i can now remember. I´m very very tired. here´s what I´ve gt. It may not be true.
The inhabitants of these islands are very different, and from Incan and pre-Incan times (thats enough of that - i´m sure if you cared, you´d google it).... the floating islands of Uros were definitely pre-Incan, because the people lived on the mainland until the Incans fought them out, at which time they escaped to the lake. There was nowhere to go though. But no, they did not give up, sod it, they probbaly thought in their language, which I also can´t rememeber now, we´ll build our own bloody islands to live on! And they did! Its so weird, the earth there is really ñight, kinda like polystyrene, and they got big chunks of it, tethered them together with ropes, covered them with layers of reeds, and anchored them down to the lake floor. Bobs your uncle, floating islands. Is it just me or is that pretty cool? There are about 70 of these islands, all with a few familes living on, about 30 people or so, with a president and all the rest of it, theres a school on one for the kids... i was impressed anyway.
It got a bit more awkward and touristy when they tried to dress us in their native clothes, sell us some extortionately priced local products (though the giant woollen plait accessories were pretty cool), and sung for us - but franky, you come to expect this. If anything Sofia and I felt really bad that we had nothing to give them, being as we leave Peru tomorrow so have run out of Soles.
Then we sailed further across the lake to Taquile, which was a beautiful island, again with charming people, doing their thing, and trying to earn a bit of money to keep on living. There we met a woman who was 100. Turns out the quality of life on thiese islands and the diets are so good that the average life expectancy is in the 80s. Or 90s. I can´t remember. Pretty good either way.
Are you bored yet? Too much learing for one day?
Off very early agan tomorrow, to Copacabana in Bolivia, where we´ll look at the lake from the other side! Hoping to spend a little less money in Bolvia... though we did have our cheapest meal so far tonight - S2.50 (which is $0.90c, or 60p), for a "menu " of the day - a soup, a main and cup of tea. Winning.
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