Wierd and wonderful Peru

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Prior to leaving Cusco we visiteda travel agent and booked a coach to Puno and also a trip to the various Islands on Lake Titicaca. I don´t know what happened but we somehow lost our tickets. Luckily the girl from the travel agent offered to pick us up from our Hotel and drive us to the bus station and vouch for us that we had purchased tickets ( she couldn´t reprint new tickets as it was a public holiday). Somehow I don´t think you would get that service in Australia!!!

Thats where things changed. We had seats 1A and 1B right at the front of the bus, we remembered that much. However, all us tourists that hopped on the bus from where we did were allocated just random seats. We never did sit in seat 1Aor B rather we sat right opposite the coach toilet. Things don´t always go as planned in South America.

The trip itself was good and we stopped at a few historic sites along the way, but after Machu Picchu they sort of paled into insignificance. At least at one stop we got to meet Anastacia the friendly Llama who we had a few photos with. We drove through a city named Juliaca, which looked like downtown Beirut, there was no way I would step off the bus here. Burnt out cars littered the streets and I think we would have been mugged in 10 seconds flat.

We checked into our hotel and immediately set out to explore Puno. That took all of about 10 minutes as there isn´t a great deal here. It is basically a stopping off point to visit Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.

The following morning we sat in our hotel lobby waiting for the local travel representative to attend and tell us what time we would be leaving and what we would need to take for our Lake Titicaca trip. She attended right on time to tell us we were leaving right now and there was a busload of fellow tourists waiting for us out the front. Great. Dom and I rushed upstairs and crammed as much as we could into our daypacks before rushing back downstairs in two minutes flat. We jumped into the bus and apologised to the other 18 or so tourists who explained they had pretty much received the same service. As I previously stated....things don´t always go as planned in South America.

We were driven down to the docks where we were herded onto a boat which was very similar to the S.S.
Minnow. The boat was pretty old. The steering device was a 1970 Cortina steering wheel loosely bolted onto a plank of wood in the cabin, the Captain´s sunvisor consisted of a faded newspaper page, when the captain himself opened a window in his cabin, it fell into the lake. Great air conditioning. All it needed was for Gilligan himself to hop onto the boat and it would have been complete.

Our first stop was about 1km out at the famous Uros Islands. These are actually floating Islands which are constructed of reeds and communities reside on them and are self sufficient through fishing and tourism. The islands can last for around 20 years before they start having to build new ones. We were met by some rather solidly built ladies wearing bright coloured outfits and their tradional hats. We got to tour the Islands and we met the head honcho named Orlando. Dom had to get a photo with him as it was the same name as her brother. Orlando invited into his residence also made out of reeds, everything was very primative but strangely enough he had a portable TV inside, supposedly powered by a solar panel. Walking on the Islands was like walking on a water bed, very spongy, very different, but a great experience.

We left the Island community and slowly headed off ( at 12 km per hour) to Amantani Island another 39 km away where we were going to have an overnight stay in a typical Amantani residence. At the Island everyone was allocated a mama dressed in their traditional outfit, to stay with. Dom and I and Lisa from Ireland and Charleen from the UK had a mama named Epiphania.

Epiphania led us to her house where she had four children aged from 1 year to 12 years. The house was very basic with corn being grown out the front and sheep in a small paddock out the back. Dom and I scored the bedroom with 4 single beds and no lights at all. The communal outside toilet had to be flushed by pouring a jug of water down it.

Mama made us a traditional lunch which was a vegetable soup and a main course of eggs and potatoes. This community is very much vegetarian, no meat is served at all. We received a tour of the island and learnt all about its history before climbing up another gringo killer to watch the sun set behind the mainland. There are no roads on the Island at all, but some spectacular views. You can see the snow capped mountians of Bolivia on the other side of the lake. As soon as the sun set it was soo cold so we rushed back to out mama´s house to wait for dinner. With no electricity Dom and I were forced to entertain ourselves by making animal shapes on our bedroom wall with a torch until dinner was served. Yes you guessed it, more soup and for main course rice and vegetables. Mama fell asleep on the kitchen floor halfway through doing the dishes so everyone else figured it was time for bed also......at 8.30pm. How sad is that!!!

The next morning we had pancakes for breakfast ( I would have died if it was soup again) before departing mama´s house for the SS Minnow and a tour of Taquile Island. The weather was fantastic, the sky was so blue and cloudless and the lake itself was a brilliant blue. We toured the island had a nice lunch ( yes it involved soup) at a restaurant which had views that in Australia we would be charged an arm and a leg for. We paid about $15.00 AUS in total for our lunch, before hopping on the boat again and returning to Puno.

We arrived just in time for a big Fiesta taking place to celebrate Puno´s birthday. Lots of the locals dressed in bright coloured outfits dancing up the streets and followed by floats carrying young kids dressed in equally bright outfits. They certainly take pride in their city. Even as I type now the Fiesta is still taking place in the streets some 3 hours after we arrived back in town. Though I must admit that it can´t compare with Halloween in Cusco.

In Cusco all the young children were immaculately dressed by the parents in their best Halloween costumes and everyone met at the main Plaza to ´trick or treat´. The only thing was that the majority of the outfits had no relevence to Halloween at all. We saw a couple of Buzz Lightyears, Woody, heaps of Spidermen and Ben 10, numerous Princesses and fairies, animals, flowers, insects, and even Michael Jackson. Though whoever dressed their child up as M.J might have been right on the money. Dom and I bought two large packets of lollies and handed them out to the kids in the square in exchange for photos. Dom has over a 100 photos of strange and wonderful outfits, plus a few cute ones too.

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Comments

[Matt Barker]

What have i told you about handing out lollies to children! You omitted to include a description of your costume.....i know you wouldn't miss an opportunity to dress up!