Lake Titicaca

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I am now in Peru and from Puno we went on an overnight excursion to Lake Titicaca. It began with us getting tricky taxi (like rickshaws) from the hotel down to the port. It's a good way to travel with a poor guy having to cycle us around. At the port we bought gifts for the families we were going to stay with on an island on Lake Titicaca. I bought my family pasta, bananas and apples. Then we got on a boat and set off to the island of Taquile. The lake was gorgeous and massive and it felt more like the sea than a lake. At first it was calm but it got a bit rocky as we got closer to the island. When we got to the island I was feeling a but rough and we had to walk for about half an hour uphill to reach the main plaza. It was a lovely island but I was feeling really dizzy by this stage (due to the altitude, sun and boat) and so really struggled to take it in. The tour guide told us about the community and how people dress shows if they are married or single. I felt ill until I had some coca tea with lunch, it really is magic stuff because I felt fine after that!! We went back to the boat and had a rocky ride to another island. There we were introduced to our Quechua mothers. Tash and I went with Mama Julia and climbed the steep path to her house. The island was lovely and there was a lot of crops being grown in people's gardens. Mama Julia was 25 years old and had two children, a girl of 5 and a boy of 3 years old. There house was small in comparison to our houses but bigger than I was expecting. It had a yard and some rooms downstairs and quite a few rooms upstairs, one of which was ours. The house was made of stone and the toilet was in a little shed in the garden. We went down to the kitchen to spend time with the family and although we didn't get introduced to the others there were a lot of relatives in the house. They all lived there and we sat around in the kitchen. The kitchen was small, dark, bare floor, a stove in one corner and a small table and bench in the other. We sat on the bench at the table and got some playing cards out to play with the children. There was an older boy there (I don't know whose child he was) and we played cards with him. It was good fun and he seemed to enjoy it. Julia's girl also hung around us a lot and she was very sweet. We were served vegetable soup and then rice with a stew type thing with pasta and potatoes in. The people on the island only eat meat on special occasions which worked out well for me. The food was delicious and we had peppermint tea afterwards. We ate by candlelight and thanked them for dinner in Quechua. Quechua is their first language but they also learn Spanish so we had limited communication. It was great to sit and eat with a culture that is completely different to ours. As the room was dark and we only really talked to the children we didn't even know how many people were in the room! Then we got dressed up in traditional clothes (petticoat, bright thick long skirt, white shirt, brightly striped belt, and a black clock that had beautiful designs on them. I felt very fat in all these clothes. We were also given hats that our Mama had made so that she could recognise us at the dance. Then Tasha, Julia, another lady (we think it was her sister) and I walked to the dance where we met everyone else. Everyone was in traditional clothes and some of the locals played music and we danced with our Mamas. It was usually a dance where we held hands in twos and danced and occasionally we would all get into lines holding hands and dance around the room. It was good fun! In the morning we got served breakfast then we went down to the port to leave. We thanked Mama Julia and said goodbye. We were on the boat for 3 hours to Uros Islands that are islands that float and our made out of reeds. We went ashore and stood on the reeds that were spongy but stable. We were told how they make the island and that they are anchored. The layers of reeds are 2m thick and the lake is about 20m deep. All the houses are made out of reeds and the island has solar electricity. There are about 65 islands in total. We got a ride on a reed boat and a lady showed me her house and dressed me up in their clothes. After this we headed back to Puno, it had been such a great experience.

The next thing we do is drive to Cusco and start the Inca Trail on Monday, I am really looking forward to it.

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