Quechua..... anyone?

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So we finally headed out of our temporary home at Adventure Brew hostel. Walking up the hill to the bus station with our backpacks wasn´t much fun. The bus was much smaller than what we were used to, so we were rather cramped in. The ride was only 3 hours though so we weren´t too worried. We slept a bit of the way and missed the lovely scenery. The bus stopped in a tiny place called Taquina. Everybody got off and we weren´t sure what was going on so we just followed.. we´ve learnt that is the best thing to do when somebody is babbling spanish and you don´t understand a single word.. follow the crowd! Turned out we had to pay 1 boliviano to board a little boat to cross to the tiny port on the other side of the strait.. otherwise it would take hours and hours to drive around. So we boarded our little boat with the rest of the bus, while our bus driver drove the bus onto a barge that then followed us over. We then piled back onto the bus and drove another hour to get to Copacabana.

As soon as we got off the bus we were accosted by the usual bunch of locals, trying to sell us tours or accommodation. We decided to wing it and quickly got our bags and headed away from the crowd. Found a place that looked ok and quickly checked in there and dumped our stuff. At 4kms above sea level, its scorching hot during the day and freezing at night. So not long after we headed outside it got really cold. We quickly found a tour shop and bought tickets to head to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) the next morning. We had a quick little walk around the very small town and found it to be pretty much full of tourists and locals trying to sell them stuff. We found a nice little restaurant and had an awesome dinner there.. quinoa soup.. yum!
Next morning we got up early to find food before the 3 hour boat ride. The boat ride was scenic but boring in the uncomfortable boat where it was scorching hot and the seats made our bums go numb. Finally pulled into Cha'llapampa beach, where we decided we would stay a few nights. The town was very, very basic. We had a little walk around and all the places with hostel signs looked a teeny bit scary. We ended up asking a hawker and he showed us to a surprisingly nice place... well.. not fancy nice but nice as in the bedroom was clean and they had a toilet. It was only 20 bongos each per night which is about 3AUD.. so no worries there. We dumped our stuff there and headed off in search of food. The choices were slim and the food we got was average and the place had a few too many flies for my liking so we quickly finished our little meal and got out of there. We headed up the north side of the island in search of some ruins. It was a bit of a tough walk with the altitude still being quite high, 3800 metres. The heat there was weird too.. scorching boiling hot, but you don´t sweat.. you just burn. The views from up there were beautiful. Lake Titicaca is so amazingly big, it looks like an ocean. From up on the mountainside we could see the snow-capped mountains of the Andes in the distance which was so surreal since we were wearing shorts and tshirts and they looked so close. Depending on which way you look across the lake, you can´t even see land on the horizon.. the surface area is so massive.. more than 8,000 km2! After much sooking and moaning from me.. we finally made it up to the top of the rise. The map told us there were ruins not far so we continued walking until we came to Chicana. The ruins were on a mountainside with a beautiful 180 degree view of the lake and lovely peace and quiet, not a sound except the water below. They were like a little labyrinth with lots of turns and stairs and dead ends. Obviously built for people of much smaller stature since we had to duck under every doorway. Check out the photos..

We were pretty over walking by this point so decided to head back to our hostel. We were hoping for showers when we got back, but as usual.. they were cold and only dribbled.. yay. Next day we headed off on a self-guided tour towards the south side of the island. It turned out to be a perfect day for walking. The view from the mountainside was absolutely perfect. The water a perfect blue with a view that went uninterrupted for miles. The map we had was rather vague and misleading, so we didn´t find any ruins on this day. We ended up walking two bays along and stopped for a coffee. The view was perfect, a quiet bay with practically nobody around. Not long after we sat down, the young kids got let out of school. Two cute little girls must have seen us from a distance and decided to hassle the gringos. They ducked along the wall next to us and jumped up trying to scare us. We got a cute photo of them, check out the pics. Next we tried to follow the map and walk a bit further, but after struggling up a big hill of steps (much much slower than all the school kids mind you, huffing and puffing we were), we decided to turn around as it looked like the walk would take much longer than expected. On arriving back to our hostel we decided to reward ourselves with a few beers after all that hard walking. It was quite amusing sitting up on our patio watching the locals go about their business. Groups of little kids pushing each other up the dirt streets on a tiny trike. The rooster next door walking about busting his moves on the lady chickens. Donkeys braying up in the hills making the most out there noises. Mama´s walking past with their babies wrapped onto their backs.

Next morning we checked out of our hostel and sat on the beach to kill time before the 1pm boat. The boat took 4 long boring hours to get back since it made two stops on the way. First stop was at the south of the island. There was some weird celebration going on there, no idea what it was. All the locals were dressed up in their finery. The men had a marching band going on. We initially thought it was a wedding but it turned out to be some kind of welcoming ceremony for some people that turned up later. When the guests turned up all the ladies started doing dances, twirling their skirts around. Another group of people was running around in a circle pulling a poor llama on a rein.. the llama was none too happy about all the noise. We finally got away after an hour and made our way back to Copacabana, stopping at some very cheesy and fake looking floating islands on the way... so fake that we refused to get off the boat and pay the 1 boliviano to have a look around.

Finally we got back to Copacabana, sunburnt, fed up and with numb bums. We found another hostel to stay at since the first one in Copacabana was a bit gross. Dumped our bags and headed out in search of dinner. Trout from the lake is the local delicacy, so Aaron got that and said it was pretty awesome... so so cheap for fish here compared to home. I got nachos but I think all the guy did was buy a packet of cheese supreme doritos and dumped them on the plate with bit of grilled cheese with a side of guacamole.. never expect to get what you´re expecting when you order food here! We decided to try a night out on the beers so we headed to a bar that Lonely Planet recommended called Nemo´s. It turned out to be a tiny, dark little place. But they played some funky jazz sort of music so we hung about and ran into some people we had met earlier that day and drank with them for the night.

Next day we organised bus tickets to Puno in Peru. We killed time trying to catch up on emails, but the internet sucked.. I suppose that is to be expected in a place with all cold showers and no ATM. The bus to Puno was only 3 hours, but quite an interesting ride. The border into Peru was only 20 minutes out of town and we breezed through there easily.. we´re getting good at this border crossing stuff! The ride was pretty scenic, plenty to look at while driving around the edge of Lake Titicaca. The co-driver on our bus turned out to be a pretty good salesman. By the time we got to Puno he had us booked into his hotel for the night and booked on a 2 day boat tour around the reed islands and the lake. We had zero cash since it was a Sunday (we don´t get our allowance in the bank until Monday).. so when we told the guy this was the reason we couldn´t do his tour, he said no worries and that we could pay him when we got back.. so we were sold on that offer we couldn´t refuse. The guy even told us to stay on the bus while everybody else got out at the bus station, then got his mate to drive us to the door of the hotel. The hotel was pretty nice and he had given it to us at a very very cheap rate, considering a room was supposed to cost 40USD and he gave it to us for 30 nuevo soles.. which is about 12AUD.

So our mate Antonio sent his mate Esteban in the minibus to pick us up at 8am the next morning and we headed off to the port to catch our boat. There were loads of boats leaving the port, heading out on pretty much the same tour as ours. So we all left in a row and headed for the reeds in the shallow part of the lake.. first stop, Uros (the famous reed islands). We had heard it was touristy but weren´t really prepared for what we saw. Yes, it was amazing.. but it seemed a bit that their whole culture is a sham and put on for the tourists. Each little island had a group of traditionally dressed women, waving out to all of the boats. It seemed each tour company had its own favoured island. We disembarked at ours and were greeted by the locals. Each island is quite small, only about 10-20 reed houses on each... each house is for a whole family and only consists of one room. We sat down and our guide talked us through how the islands are made and how the local people live. The reeds grow only in shallow water, about 2m deep. The people of Uros go out in their boats with 2m long metal saws and saw into the mud and roots, cutting out squares of mud/roots/reeds about half a metre square. When they have enough to make a foundation, stakes are put into the mud bricks, then ropes twisted around the stakes.. this makes the foundation for the whole island and stops it from eroding quickly or floating away. Then on top of the foundation, stacks of reeds are added, a massive carpet 3m deep which is gradually replaced over the years. Each island has to be replaced every 18-22 years. The reeds have other uses too, they are used to build all the houses, to make mattresses for beds, to make the local taxis and large boats, and even to brush their teeth! They peel the root end of the reed and eat it instead of using toothpaste. We tried it, it tasted like white part of watermelon skin mixed with celery.. weird. After our little talk, the locals all grabbed a couple of us tourists and asked to show us their houses. Their whole home was only about 6 metres square. Only big enough for a bed in one corner, with a bit of room to move around the sides. Very cute and cosy though. They quickly got us dressed up in the local garb and clicked off pictures of us. Then they took us outside to their little tourist stall and of course tried to get us to buy stuff.

After Uros we got back on our boat and chugged out through the ´roads´that are made in the reeds for boats. The trip to Amantani island took a long 4 hours, this was to be where we would meet our host family for the night. On Amantani the locals speak a little bit of spanish, but mostly Quechua.. the local dialect, so our guide gave us all a list of pleasantries in the local language... man.. we can barely speak Spanish yet! The plus side of Amantani is that the land is a bit too barren, hilly and harsh to support animals for food.. so they are all vegetarian.. woo hoo! We finally arrived and met with a group of local women. Each pair or three on our boat got allocated to a different family. Our ´mama´was called Mathilde. Mathilde quickly headed off and we joined the other groups heading for their new homes. The walk was a bit hard even though it was only slightly uphill in most places, we were still at altitude and us soft gringos could barely handle it. We finally got to our hosts house and Mathilde showed us to our room. Her house was on quite a small little plot, even though her whole section was much bigger. Downstairs was the kitchen and 3 other rooms that we didn´t get to see. Upstairs was our room and the room Mathilde shared with her husband Jesus (pronounced hay-suss). The whole little complex was made out of mud bricks and had no power at all. We didn´t even see a bathroom, only an outside toilet out past the veggie patch. Our room was pretty big, it had 2 doubles and a single bed plus a two seater table. Mathilde left us to it, saying she would be back in an hour.. then she went to work in the kitchen. We ducked out and had a little look around the property. The view was amazing out to the lake and up the mountains. She had a small flock of sheep and a big plot for growing veggies. It was right by a little waterfall too. We headed back to our room to rest up for the walk we had to do in an hour or so. Mathilde turned up at our door with a tray of lunch which was amazing. We had quinoa soup, which was delicious. Then she came back with another tray of food, little plate each of tiny steamed potatoes, some tomato and some fried cheese that was divine and tasted like haloumi. Then to top it off we got some moonyah tea.. this stuff was bloody brilliant. It has a really unusual minty flavour.. its our new fave.. yum!

We had a little relax after lunch and then Mathilde gave us both warm hats then walked us up to the town sports court and we met up with the rest of our tour. Esteban was a great little tour guide and had all the know about the island and its people. He walked us up towards the two mountains the locals worship, Pachamama and Pachatata. We had plenty of breaks along the way while we all huffed and puffed in the altitude. Esteban explained that the whole island worked as a community, practicing crop sharing and rotation, so that the soil didn´t get tired and all the families had an even share of food and work.. very cool. By this point the sun was going down and it gets freezing quickly around here as soon as the sun dips. We all walked up to Pachatata to see the sunset and it was beautiful. Check out the photos, they are gorgeous!

Afterwards we headed home and Mathilde´s husband Jesus met us to walk us home for dinner. He was a pretty funny dude who gibbered crap and we had no idea what he was saying most of the time since he was chewing coca leaves. We sat in the mud brick kitchen with only the light of two candles, while Mathilde cooked yet another stunning meal. Now I tend to bitch if I have a small kitchen, but this lady was amazing. She cooked us a two course meal plus cups of tea at a mud brick stove while sitting on the floor on a mud brick stool.. all by candlelight. Using a bucket of water from the waterfall to do the washing up. She was a very cool lady. We really wished we could speak more spanish so we could have communicated with her better. An hour after dinner she knocked on our door and had a handful of clothes. She dressed us both in traditional outfits and her and Jesus marched us off to the local hall for a fiesta!

Well, the fiesta wasn´t what we expected. I was rather glad when we arrived to see a bunch of other girls from our group, dressed up just the same as me so that made me feel a bit less silly. We quickly bought a beer each and got to drinking. The rest of our group turned up in their funky outfits and the local boy band turned up.. with their pan pipes and little guitars, dressed in cute ponchos.. woot!! The party was amusing, it consisted of the band playing a song and our mama´s getting up and twirling us around... then the band finished and the hall fell into silence waiting for the next song. Needless to say, the ´party´didn´t last long and we only stayed about an hour before our mama fell asleep in the corner and we took her home. But she put on a good show before that, twirling Aaron and I around, showing us how the locals dance.

Next morning Mathilde knocked to get us up early. She made us another kick ass meal, pancakes for brekkie with jam and moonyah tea. She walked us down to the dock and said a quick goodbye as it was raining quite a bit by then. We got back on our boat and went over to Taquille island for another walk. The island was very pretty with great views and lovely people and animals all over the place. The people here had this great little hat system so you know exactly where you stand. The bosses have a certain hat, then married men have a different coloured hat. Single people have another hat that has to be worn to a certain side, guys with girlfriends have to wear the hat to the other side. Kids have another hat. All very confusing! So confusing that Aaron kept on hitting on the married men!

The trip back to Puno was another long one as the boat chugged along super slow and we were rushed to catch our bus almost the moment we got back. We made it on time and got everything done in a mad rush and boarded our bus.. next stop, Arequipa.

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