Island Hopping

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After hitting the highest point accessible by road in the Andes, our tour made its way to Puno. Really, Puno doesn’t offer much more than access to Lake Titicaca. For those of you who don’t know, aside from providing giggles whenever you hear its name, Lake Titicaca is also the highest navigable lake in the world (above 4000 m).

Unlike Machu Picchu and the jungle, I really didn’t know what to expect at Lake Titicaca, aside from a huge lake. Because I had no idea what to expect and because I hadn’t seen any island photos, everything there truly amazed me.

After taking a bicycle cart taxi to the port, we boarded a boat and went straight to the Uros Islands. The Uros Islands are made completely from reed. Seriously. The locals realized that reed turns into a cork like substance after about 20 years. Therefore, these ingenious people decided to build islands on top of this 20 year old reed, so the islands are actually manmade and float. There are 34 islands…right now. You see, there are about 10 - 12 people on each island and, occasionally, they get into huge disputes that can only be solved one way: they cut the island in half! I’m serious. They cut the island in half. In half!!! How funny is that?

Once we finished our visit on the floating islands, we made our way to the island we were going to spend the night at: Amantani Island. When we arrived, we met our “moms” for the night. The cutest little old ladies were all lined up along the harbour waiting for their charges for the night. We were divided up, and I was handed over to Mama Rosa. We then had a 20 minute hike up to reach Mama Rosa’s home, which, at 4000 m, was quite a challenge. Luckily, the little old ladies had mercy on us and gave us a few breaks along the way.

We arrived at Rosa’s home, which was made of mud bricks and straw. There was no electricity or plumbing, which was interesting... I survived though! After settling in, our Dad for the day served us lunch, which consisted of soup and mint tea. Afterwards, the guys on the tour (and brave Belinda) then played a game of soccer (or football according to the overwhelming majority of Brits on the tour). It was quite funny to see those guys huff and puff after running for only a few minutes.

That evening, our parents dressed us up in traditional garb, which I wore over four layers due to the slight chill in the air (again, the whole 4000 m above sea level thing), and took us to a local dance hall for an evening of music and traditional dancing. I had a pretty big laugh looking at myself in the mirror and feeling like I was wearing a fat suit; however, it was decided that even the skinniest people on our tour looked like they gained 50 lbs in the outfits—let’s just say they’re not the most flattering. I definitely burned off some calories that evening though! We were forced to dance to every song, which usually went on for at least 10 minutes. No kidding. It was like “Stairway to Heaven” over and over again.

The next day we headed to our final island: Taquile Island. In addition to the beautiful scenery, the island also offers a very interesting dating culture. See, the men there are the ones who weave and knit. In fact, they knit their own hats, which are used to indicate their marital status. If half of the hat is white, the man is single. If the hat is partly white and tipped to the side, he’s single, but in a relationship. Years ago, the hats used to be used to indicate his worthiness—his potential partner would flip the hat upside-down, fill it with water, and see how tightly knit the hat was. The tighter the knit, the better the man. I love it. Why don’t we do something like this? All those in favour of incorporating the hat dating culture into our culture, say I… “I”!!! If only it were that easy!

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Photos

Amantani Island
My "dad"

Amantani Island
My "mom"

Amantani Island
My "house"

Amantani Island
The View

Taquile Island
The View