A night on Lake Titicaca

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So, we are back in civilisation again after spending last night on Amantani Is on Lake Titicaca. It was an amazing experience as we spent it with a host family.....but that's to come, lets start with leaving La Paz.
After our ride on the Death Road and a nice sleep, we woke up for a quick brekky, before heading down to Rosita to meet our new guides, Sue and Mark. They work as a couple and have been for a few years, with Tucan Travel. Sue is Brazilian so can speak Spanish and Portuguese (huge help), and Mark is an Aussie!! 😊 We were on the road at 7:30am, and said goodbye to beautiful La Paz. We also had an extra on the truck, Juan, a guide to take us to Tiahuanaco, a pre-Inca ruins and museum. This was 1.5 hours away, so we caught up on sleep and also got a lot of information about the history. It was very informative, and interesting how they have beliefs about how things were formed that are so similar to Christianity. It's so easy to see that Christianity was the original religion. When we finally got to Tiahuanaco, we visited the musuem full of ancient artifacts, including a sea-horse fossil taken from Lake Titicaca (which supposedly proved that it was an ocean at one point). Maybe a great flood could have caused this?? 😉 We also went outside to visit the ruins of Tiahuanaco. This included a pyramid being restored, a temple that has already been restored and an underground temple that has also been finished. The reason why all these buildings had been re-made was because when the Spanish came, they wanted them to follow their religion, so took all the Gold and destroyed most of what was there. There were ruins, so they have built them around these. There were also these three temples (pyramid, temple and underground temple) to represent three parts of their religion. Underground temple represented the after-life, which their symbol is the snake. The temple level with the ground represented present life, and that symbol is the Puma, and the Pyramid represented the Cosmos, and that symbol is the Condor. These three animals are all over Peru and Bolivia, so this is why. Inside the underground temple there were carvings of the different priests that had been in Tiahuanaco, including one looking like an alien (other beings present on earth??). Amazing engineering was also used, as shown by the hole in the wall into the plaza area of the big temple, which actually was an amplifier. Our guide demonstrated by talking to us through it, and the whole temple would've heard what he was saying. It was quite amazing. We finished up at Tiahuanaco, said goodbye to Juan and headed off to the border crossing between Bolivia and Peru.
At the border crossing it was one of our easiest, except for one thing....(there is always one!! 😊 ) We had to exchange our money from Bolivianos to Soles (Peru) at the border, but we were told to watch out for fakes. Mischa exchanged our money, and put it back in his wallet. Soon after, Sue told us to check all our notes (before we left) if they were fakes or in bad condition. The trick is to look at the numbers on the notes and if they don't change colour, they were fake. Mischa went back through his notes and found a definite fake. Along with Sue, went back to the exchange place and got a different note after a bit of argueing. Luckily Sue was there. Mischa was the only person to get a fake, he was quite chuffed!!! 😊 After the border excitement, we stopped off for a lunch break at our most amazing lunch spot yet. The photo's don't do it justice, but by the lake (Titicaca that is!), on the grass was a nice setting. We were making good time, so Mark knew about a place off the beaten track to another pre-Inca ruin, a fertility temple, this one for the ladies. This temple was a place for females to see if they were able to have children. It was also a place where they gave birth, and if it was a girl, most of the time it was then killed on a table inside the temple. It was quite a horrific story, and even the way they found out was not nice...But the main attraction was the fact that the whole temple was full of stone penis'. It was quite an amazing place, a lot of spiritual stuff. There was also quite an aggressive llama, it had a bit of a go at one of the group, but luckily he was quite used to animals and soon had it under-control!! 😊 But it was fun to watch!! 😊 We headed off again to Puno, a beautiful city of 100,000 right on Lake Titicaca. We got there with a bit of time to go for a walk around town, before getting ready to go out for dinner as a group. This was the first time to get to know Sue and Mark outside of the truck, so it was a nice night out. Mischa also got harrased by a lady selling a jumper, and finally gave in to grab a nice llama jumper and beanie. (He wanted one, but finally got one!!) Together they only cost $20, so it was quite good!! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, Jess fell asleep while Mischa updated the last blog and tried to watch the Melbourne Cup!! 😊 (Sorry Vee...)
Day 32, Tuesday, 2nd November was again an early start, as we had to pack a day pack for the day, put away our big packs (not see them for 2 days) and hop into a Tuk-Tuk to head down to the harbour to head out onto Lake Titicaca for one night. Lake Titicaca is about 160km long and 70km wide, which is HUGE!!! Nothing like Lake Moondarra, but very close to Lake Eyre. So, to travel round, you would think we had a decent boat. Not in Peru!! 😊 The boat had a car engine running a VERY VERY slow boat, with a Toyota car steering wheel and an Toyota gear stick as the accelerator!! It was 3.5 hours on the water so again a lot of information from our new guide, Alejandro, (yes, like the Lady Gaga song!! 😊) and also a lot of listening to music. The water is crystal clear, but with an average temp of 9 degrees, not much swimming or skiing!! 😊 We finally got to our first island, Taquille (as opposed to Tequilla but an easy way to remember!). This island is very secluded from all the other 60 islands, and is run by one person (all other islands democratically elect this leader except for this one, he, and only HE, is elected by the previous leader). They don't trade produce with anyone, and the sadest story is that the children don't have to go to school. Because tourism is so big (you have to pay to have a photo), they choose to not go to school but make and sell bracelets as this earns them more money. This was our stop for lunch, and Alejandro had friends on the island so found a little restaurant with a great view, and also got his friends to demonstrate some musical instruments and dancing, plus the making of the waistbands they wear. They take 2.5 months to make one, and have different representations, each unique. You also have woman that wear colourful pom-poms to show they are single, and dark ones if they are married. The waistbands are also worn by married men and women, as they are made by their partner and include the hair of the person as the ties!! The men wear different jackets to show whether they are single or married. Would make it much easier to find a partner we think!! Also, the funny part to finding a partner is that the man will see a woman he likes from behind, and throws a little rock at them. If they don't like the guy who threw the stone, they actually pick another one up and throws it back!! 😊 Men could get the hint quick if we used this technique in Aus!! 😊 After lunch, we walked around the rest of the island to our waiting boat, where it was a very rough 1hr ride across to our island for the night, Amantani. This island is one of the biggest islands, and where we met our host family. Our host mother, Juana, met us at the port, and walked us slowly (still at 3800m, walking aint easy) up the hill to our house. We were surprised to have a light in our room, and the view was beautiful. We quickly dumped our stuff, as it was time to test our lungs out by having a football (soccer) match against some of the locals. After about 30mins, everyone's lungs were just about to give up, so called it a match and had a quick hot chocolate before being led back to our house for dinner. We also met the rest of the family living there, including Mary (eldest daughter) and Yoset (pronounced Josef) the youngest boy. These weren't hard to remember for reasons pretty obvious!! 😊 We sat in the kitchen watching them cook dinner over a wood stove, trying very hard to communicate with them using the Quechua language and our broken Spanish, hand signals and the camera!! 😊 Papa, Ernesto, also arrived and had a nice chat before dinner was served. First up, was vegetable soup with potato (the staple diet), and a number of different vegies and things we weren't willing to ask about. Next up was rice with potato and a few other veggies.... 😊 It was very yummy, different and filling, so much so we were pretty pleased that there wasn't any dessert. There was Munah tea (type of wild mint, just branch in hot water style) that Jess liked, and then the cards came out. Mischa decided to play snap with the kids, and won...and then decided to teach them Uno with normal cards. It was interesting trying to explain the number 8 was reverse, 7 was skip and the pick up cards with 2 and 4. But they got the hang of it, and ended up winning the game. By then it was time to get dressed into the traditional clothes for some dancing at the local hall. Again, there was a great local band playing, and dancing (no timing...) for about an hour. Luckily there was always a 5 min break between songs, as everyone was gasping for air after jumping around in a circle for 10mins at altitude. 10pm came and we all packed up and headed back to our houses to catch some sleep. It was freezing, but luckily the beds had 5 blankets on them, so snuggled up and crashed.
Today, day 33 and a Wednesday, wouldn't you know it. Pancakes with jam for breakfast was a nice treat, especially after the sun decided to stream through our wonderful view at 5am!! 😊 Still didn't get up til 7 though!! Jess is still coughing and runny nose (please pray) so still hasn't had a full nights sleep, but we were ready for another day. After breakfast, a few photos and a nice downhill walk to the port, we said our goodbyes to our families and set off to Uros, the floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca. This was again 3 hours away, so another bit of historical information from our guide was followed by music and sleep. It was so relaxing on the boat, with no waves and the beautiful scenery. Could do that every day!! 😊 We finally made it to Uros, and it was quite interesting. We arrived at our island of choice to a welcoming party, and after gathering around, was given a very informative talk about how the islands are built. It ended up with a mini island, very cool and amazing that they actually live on them!! We also then got a demonstration from the local 'actresses' about how they normally barter with others. It wasn't very forceful, with produce exchanged, not money. Anything from potatoes to quinoa to onions are taken from each other until everyone seems to be happy. It was entertaining at the least. We then had time to look around the houses and the island, and then jump onto a reed boat to be transported and picked up at a different island. It was very windy, so it was funny that a little tinny came along and helped push the reed boat (normally powered by oarmen) across the water!! 😊 After about an hour at Uros, it was a short 30min trip back on our slow boat (glad to see it go) to Puno.
Puno has been transformed into PARTY central!! It is actually Puno Day (a celebration of the founding of Puno) tomorrow, but the party starts and ends days either side. We couldn't actually get back to our hotel by car, we had to walk a few blocks as the main part of town has been blocked off for a mardi-gras-type-parade!! We did see some trucks being decorated as we arrived, but after having a shower and resting for a bit, Sam, Greg, Rob, Jules and us decided to head off for a big lunch and then a look around!! Where we decided to have lunch was actually right next to a section, so we saw a few floats pass before lunch finished and we headed into the main square where the party was at!! Beers, water, softdrink and lollies were being thrown from the floats as they drove around the plaza, and then there were more dancers and musicians making their way through the mall. It was very entertaining, very colourful and very loud!! Just very typical of South America....
Enough for now, enjoy the photos and we'll see you in CUZCO!!!

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Comments

[Cheryl]

Party time
From one party to another! Learning lots of history as well! I think the opportunity to spend time with a local family is a great idea. Sounds like you are learning some new language skills too. A fertility temple - umm!!!!