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Published: January 31st 2010
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After another early morning wake up this time 7am, we helped ourselves to the free breakfast and packed a bag our overnight trip to the islands on Lake Titicaca.
We got told that our bus would be picking us up at 8:30am, so it was a massive suprise when there was a knock at the door from a guy saying he was here to pick us up. This brought about mad panic as three of us were still unready...unusually it was me, mr last minute.com that was ready. We quickly had to go to reception to check out and pay the tab. once in the minbus we did a back street tour of puno stopping off at what felt like every other hostel in Puno. We eventually got to the port where we boarded our boat for the enxt couple of days. As we were the last to board I had the honour of sitting next to the driver of the boat. When he was away i even snuck into his seat and drove the boat. I have a photo to prove it. Don{t worry though the boat was stationary.
Our first trip was to Los Uros-Islas Flotantes. On
the way we got great views back at Puno city and of local men out cutting down the reeves for their island- There was roughly 5 different communities in the floating islands. Each with their own island. We only visited one that was called San Pedro.
Firstly we met the locals who welcomed us with a song. We really only met the women and children as the men were either collecting reeves or fishing. We all sat in a group and listened to our tour guide (Edwin) explain about the cultures of the Uros people. We also had the presidents brother show us how they make the islands.
After all the talking it was time to explore the island, this started off with one woman asking us to see her house. The houses were effectively wooden shacks but they were made to a very impressive standard. Inside her house was the youngest son who was only 11 months old. He was so adorable, with his cuddly cheeks and podgy belly.
After the look around the woman showed us her goods she makes and we felt oblidged to buy something as part of her showing the house.
Guilt Trip!!! So we got Fi a bracelet, although i am not to sure she likes it but she has still got it on which i guess is a good sign.
Having spent half an hour looking around the islans of San Pedro we were offered a boat ride across the river to another island on a traditional Uros boat made of some plants that are grown locally. It was a pleasant journey where quite a lot seemed to happen in 15 minutes.
Firstly Fiona and Katie got there hair plaited by a little Uros girl. They thought it was sweet until she asked for money! or should i say expected money. That was the big frustration with the floating islands as it was lovely however the Uros people are just becoming too reliant on trourism and begging for money.
After an hour or so around the floating islands we moved onwards to the enxt destination, Amantani. This was a three hour boat journey so gave me plenty fo time to catch up on the blog and also admire the great views of the lake. We were due to spend the night on Amantani.
After sunning
ourselves on the boat journey we arrived at the island of Amantani. This island is 17km squared and has roughley 3000 people who are split into 10 different communities, When we got onto the land we were shown the women who would be hosting us. We were introduced to a lady called Silvia who was our adopted mum for the night-sorry kim and cheryl. Silvias first port of call was to make some lunch for us four. We were starving! She served us a typical Amantani soup which had noodles and random vegetables in. It is supposed to be good source of calcium for your bones. She then suprised us witha second course, this time it was rice, potatoes, cheese and tomato. Carb overload! But i think she had an idea of our afternoons activities and was preparing us for what was to come.
After we finished our food Silvia became a sales women and showed us her collection of chullo. Unfortunately for her we all already had one and therefore didnt want to pay over the odds for another one. Silvia seemed disappointed by this and made us feel guilty, so guilty we even did the pots for
her.
After lunch the whole group were invited to meet in the main square for 4pm. Here Edwin explained more about the island and informed us of the afternoons activities. It was a small task of a steep climb up Pachatata which is the highest point on the island and it would also be our first venture over 4000 metres above sea level.
It was fai to say we paced ourselves stopping regularly to get a braeth, take a drink, or stop for me to take more random photos. After an hours walking, a toilet break, two shop breaks, hundreds of locals trying to sell and what seemed like a thousand pictures we made it to the top. Wow the whole walk was worth it. Just for the views, i even took the chance to try and video a 360 degree view to show people. this was the first real time we could just see how enormous the Lake Titicaca actually was.
After catching our breath and taking advantage of the perfect photo opportunities we started the walk down. This was easier obviously as it was going down. The time also flew but mainly because KAtie managed
to tell a whole story that lasted afrom the top to the bottom. Roughley half an hour. She reminds me a lot of myself to say the least. When we got back down to the square it was around dinner tie so Silvia served us up some more soup similar to the one before but this time without noodles. The second course was rice and veg. The food was all products of what is made on the island and this explains the lack of meat. People from Amantani only rally eat meat on special occasions like a wedding.
We used this time to get to know Silvia better. Our suspicions was that she was the presidents wife to which she confirmed. We were staying with the president of the community. Unfortunately we didnt get to meet the great man himself as he was on official duty. My guess was he was visitng the white house. But the girls poilt this and informed me he was simply just working.
The house was quite spacious it had basic cooking facilities and evn had electricity, which was a bonus.
After dinner Silvia explained that there was a party thrown in
the local community centre sp she was going to lend us typical peruvian outfits and we would go celebrate with the locals.
We all looked rather fetching in our outfits. My personal highlight was how they managed to get a skirt to amtch the colour of Fionas hair. When we arrived at the venue we were greeted by fellow people in our group and this again provided a perfect photo opportunity. They even had a local band on who were like the Amantani version of S Club Juniors. They were very good and and after a couple of hours dancing we peaked and decided to call it a night around 10:30pm. Early i know, perhaps i am past it. Although we were due to get up at 7am the next day. So fiona needed her customary 9hours sleep otherwise she gets cranky : )
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