Puno & Amantani Island home-stay

---

The 7 hour bus trip from Cuzco to Puno was generally uneventful, other than the ever spectacular scenery. We arrived in time for a 15 minute walking tour of our local city blocks before retiring to a luke warm shower before dinner in a restaraunt a couple of blocks from the Hotel.
At 7:30 am our limo service arrived to ferry us to the docks for our boat ride to Taquile and Amantani Islands. When we say limo, we actually mean tricycle like, peddle like, taxi like things. And it was a race!! We do´t have a photo to post, but the video is a hoot.
The boat trip to Taquile is a little over three hours, and we had a guided tour and lunch, which had us leaving for Amantani at about 3:00 pm.
We were welcolmed at the dock at Amantani by our ¨mammas¨, dressed in the traditional costume, and speaking no English at all. It was going to be an interesting night. We were escorted to our home stay house which was an adobe brick two story house, which was an exhausting trip up the hill from the dock. Mind you, everything is exhausting at 4000m.
The home was not quite 5 star, as the photos show, but it was home to mamma Elsa, pappa Octavio, 16 year old daughter Janet and 6 y.o. Ronny. Oh, and us for the night.
Before dinner we climbed higher up the hill to the local soccer pitch (concrete actually) for a 6 aside friendly with the locals. We only had 15 minutes because it was getting quite dark. Lucky that, as 15 min at 4000m is like 4 hours at sea level.
Dinner was in the kitchen of our home with Elsa and the kids and after it was up to our room to dress in local garb for the fiesta in our honor. We danced for what seemed like hours, (about one actually) and then weary from our big day Elsa escorted us home to bed.
The sunrise over Lago Titikaka at 5:15 am was beautiful. Breakfast in the kitchen at 7:00 am was pancakes and jam, and the local tea. 8:00 am and we were saying farewell to our hosts as the boat set sail for the reed islands of Uros.
These amazing islands are made from reeds that grow in the shallows near the port of Puno and float in about 10 - 20 m of water. Just about everything on the islands is made from reeds. Houses, tables, chairs, boats everything.
By 1:00pm we were back at the hotel in Puno. Thats us for now, we´ll be in Bolivia tomorrow and will report when we can find another internet connection, and have a couple of hours to type the next episode.

---

Photos

view from our bedroom
mind your head Dot

ready for the ball
well it was a fiesta actually. nice gear eh?

kids in the kitchen
breakfast with Janet and Ronny

Sunrise at Amantani
The morning sun over Titikaka

Comments

[Anne,Lisa,Daniel,Danielle]

Envious
To Dot and Russell, I am so envious of all the adventures you seem to be having. I am actually starting to think that I would like to go off on some great adventure in the future. I will keep saving I guess. Maybe one day. Love from all.