Long Lost Love of Amantani

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Today I sit lazily, winding down beachside in Miraflores. This might be my last post for Peru as there is no more story to be told, but I figured I should detail my Lake Titicaca experience as well as my last few days in Miraflores.

After the Machu Picchu trek, Chris and I decided to go our seperate ways because he wanted to get back to Colombia to find his beautiful Colombian wife and I was flying out of Lima in about a week. A sad departure, but we definitely had our share of good times. I realized I'd be spending the last 8 days traveling alone and I sure as hell didn't want to spend a whole week whiling my time away in Lima, so I opted to get to Lima via Puno so I could go back and revisit Lake Titicaca. The bus ride to Puno was excruciatingly annoying. I sat next to 3 dodgy (I'm bringing this word back to the States!) Peruvian Men, all with a minimum of 4 capped teeth, apparently made out of aluminum or tin. They would look at me and joke with each other and within seconds I was excessively paranoid. I was sure they were scheming on how they were going to rob me blind and steal all my valuables and then publicly humiliate me somehow. I guarded my luggage like a lion to its cubs and didn't succumb to the extreme exhaustion beckoning me to fall asleep. I stayed awake, bugeyed, the whole 7 hour trip and did not lose a single item.

NOTEWORTHY: the man directly to my left would pretend "sleep", and then intrusively throw his leg on top of mine or lean against me with his shoulder, shifting sleeping positions. He completely took my personal space that I paid for and I spènt a good portion of the trip fantasizing about chopping his leg off.

And one more thing about the bus ride that really pissed me off. This guy was trying to sell stuff and he threw this granola bar in my lap, offering it to me. I asked in Spanish "Is this free?", to which he responded, "yes, it's free." I knew it wasn't but I ate it anyways and when he tried to collect money from me, I refused and we argued for about 10 minutes. I kept repeating "You told me it was free, you shouldn't have told me it was free if you wanted money" and he just kept gesturing for me to give him money. These men made me lose faith in the goodness of all Peruvians.

So I'm in Puno and immediately book a 2 day, 1 night tour of Lake Titicaca and then go to my hostel. The hostel was awesome, apartment style rooms with a personal TV in the living space and plenty of DVDs - great chill spot. Next morning I get picked up and everyone in my tour group is couples except for these 2 Japanese girls who only speak Japanese and Spanish - MF. Turned out everybody was nice though and I got to know them pretty well. We first stopped at the floating islands of Uros and got a lesson on the structure of the islands and what makes them float. They were pretty wicked, very springy ground and everything made of reeds. The "indigenous" feel was a bit ruined upon learning they have internet, TV, and radio as well as restaurants and churches on the islands. They sang us a native song as we left which honestly sucked (all they did was badly sing "Vamos a la Playa" over and over) and we were off. We continued to our main destination where we were going to spend a night - Isle of Amantani.

We got there and they assigned us a woman whose family we would stay with the whole time - it sort of felt like some bizarre prostitution ring the way they handed the women out, but I was excited to spend some time with a real indigenous family. My woman was called Juana, the oldest of the bunch, and she was not much of a talker. I would ask her questions in Spanish and she would just smile. Nonetheless, there was something endearing about this tiny, crooked-toothed, old woman. We walked in silence to her house and as we were walking up, Juana noticed a gaggle of birds hanging out front. In one Batman-esque motion, Juana whipped her cloak at the birds sending them flying, terrified of the ancient relic of a woman. One bird, about 10 meters away, had the bird balls to linger around, but Juana wasn't putting up with that bullshit. She picked up a stone, threw it at the bird and hit the damn thing! UNBELIEVABLE. After that Juana and I shared our first laugh and she showed me my room. Very basic and the guest room was undoubtedly the nicest room in the house, so I was very appreciative.

The lake shore near Puno and even the floating islands is kind of gross, but now that I was far into the middle of it, I noticed how beautiful the lake was. It's a vast expanse of blue, looking more like an ocean than a lake, and the sun literally sparkles on the waters surface - very relaxing. After about 2 hours, Juana served me lunch. The potato soup was pretty good...then the entree came. It looked like some mystery white meat atop lots of tiny little penis'. What I was incredibly reluctant to eat and took many photos of, turned out to be fried cheese on top of about 30 little potatoes that resembled penis. The greatest intake of starch foods of my entire life. After lunch we met up with the rest of the group and hiked to the highest point on the island, around 4100 meters, to watch the sunset. Maybe the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen, rivaling some of the Grecian Isle sunsets I've seen (that makes me sound well traveled) - and then the temperature dropped. It is f***ing freezing on Amantani in the winter and the locals just walk around in sandals with no socks. After I adjusted to the subarctic temps, I looked up and saw the starriest sky of my life. It was like a perfect starry dome blanketing the island, impossible to count and easily visible because no lights are ever on on the island. After an hour of stargazing, eating dinner (potato soup with potatoes and rice) and schmoozing it up with Juana's 2 daughters, Juana's husband dressed me in traditional clothes for the FIESTA!

Following this stout, miniature woman guiding us only with a small flashlight on some strange island while I'm dressed in an oversized poncho and hat was surreal to say the least. We get to the party inside a building near the center of our side of the island and are one of the first few to arrive. It was certainly awkward for me at first, sitting there by myself, everyone hanging out in the groups they traveled in. But my group ended up arriving and when the music started we all just got up and danced. The traditional "dance" involves holding the partners hands and clumsily moving side to side and inevitably everyone joins hands and dances in a big circle. It was more like a giant circular wave because the women would aggressively pull you in and then pull you out, almost in a whiplash type motion. Took awhile to get acclimated to the dance, but it ended up being uber fun. Then they brought in this midget guy, dressed all in white, who was a God awful dancer. He would run to a spot and tap his foot twice and scream like a coyote and these two women would follow him around. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. The party moved outside around a giant bonfire and we danced the night away. Me and Juana, two dancing fiends, sweat pouring off our bodies, laughing and swaying in rhythm. It was that night I realized Juana was my long lost love. If it wasn't for the language, age, and cultural barriers, I'm sure we'd be together in another life. That night I slept peacefully, dreaming about cold nights spent warm in an elders embrace...

We woke up and left Amantani. The farewell stung my heart, but I put on a brave face - Juana must have too because she seemed completely unaffected by my departure.

We visited this island Taquile, a world heritage site for the skilled artisan's inhabitting the island. Sounds great but really wasn't very memorable and returned to the mainland. I think I might rank this little excursion above Colca Cañon and even Machu Picchu. The cultural experiences coupled with the beauty of the island and lake (...and Juana) made the whole thing feel unreal. I spent one more night in Puno, chilling out and watching movies before leaving to Lima the next morning.

In life I'm sure I'll get married. I'll have kids and a family and I suppose we'll be happy. But souls are delicate and rare and sensitive to the touch. When something moves you and you experience perfect love, it's not easily forgotten. I know our relationship was short, but Juana, you touched my soul and for that I will never forget you. You'll probably die before ever using a computer, but if you happen to read this with your tiny old beady eyes, know that you're in my heart and will stay there forever...

Bravo out.

PS: I don't want to overlap two separate locales, so I will write one more very brief entry.

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Photos

Los UROS
Floating hacks

Amantani Women
Notice their tiny features and tough skin. Neat.

Comments

[s hale]

so, oddly enough, i'm pretty sure i went on this exact same tour of puno/titicaca/amantani. i must say that you left out my personal favorite part (after wearing the traditional garb) which was the massive grandstand-like structure that appears out of nowhere at the top of the island haha