Advertisement
Friends from all around,
This blog is rather late...and there are many other stories awaiting, but we have not been very lucky technologically wise...
Since last time...the strike...well we have had confirmation of how lucky we were. Most people we met that had been stuck there had to walk four hours in the mountains with their bags after sleeping in a frozen bus all night... Or they were stuck in the middle between the police and the strikers, between rocks and tear gas... It would have made a much more interesting blog for sure... Yet, we re fine with our dullness this time! The strike is still not over yet, and it seems to get worse everywhere... it better calm down cuz we still gotta get back to lima for our plane before saturday!
While we were in Puno, we went to visit the islands of los Uros, Amantani and Taquile. Los Uros are floating islands where we saw a restaurant collapse, and decided it was a good idea not to sleep there.
Next we went to Amantani. This was our favorite island by far. The quechua speaking communities decided to preserve their paradise and
so far have refused the construction of a hotel or other tourist-like business. There are 7 little villages on the island, and 9 houses that welcome travelers. Thus we arrived and a family welcomed us and took us to stay in their home. The people there live for their land, and eat what they grow, in complete autarcy. We slept on a bed made of straw, had a garden with potatoes, okas (see strange looking and tasting vegetable on my nose) sheep and little biquette. (these animals seem much less cute when you have to cross the garden in pitch darkness to go to the toilet -well, a the hole surrounded by walls- not knowing whats around you!! )
The sense of community, of solidarity, was awesome. We climbed up to the Pachamama temple to watch the sun set and the stars appear on this island away from it all, with no electricity... It was nice too to stay by candlelight, it makes everything look softer. We had a bit of trouble coming back down in pitch darkness to find our house... but eventually made it. Before dinner the kids came up to our rooms to play music for
us with flutes and drums, and the lill ones made us dance with them for what seemed an endless time up at 4000m where our breath is so easily lost. We loved it though, we can´t get enough of peruvian kiddos!
The next day we left early to spend a few hours on Taquile, which functions like Amantani as small communities with a president of the island. Unfortunately we didnt stay much...but highly recommend it. We climed about 500 steps of an inca path, hardly breathing and chewing our coca, taking about twice as long as any normal inca... It s gorgeous, a little less desertic than Amantani, but sadly a bit more touristic...
We left the peruvian islands to cross the Bolivian border and stayed in Copacabana in a little hostel...after following french people who knew where to go. People weren´t so nice to us in town, i guess they re exhasperated by tourists and not very curious of us, so we took off to the island. Isla del sol this time...
This island is beautiful. A lot of buenas ondas...many gorgeous views of islands of titicaca and the mountains of the andes. We arrived
on the south to another crazy inca path and walked our way up. On our search for the perfect sunset spot, we met a little girl called Berta and her Lama Poncho, who climbed with us for a while. we like lamas A LOT! Not only do they make great warm hats for this crazy cold part of the country, but they remind us of our beloved brother jeanfrancois. (it was his birthday on the 7th, i hope all of you remembered). We ate in a little hut (kinda like the hut of the chef in the town of asterix et obelix -super reference hein!- ) the smallest restaurant we ve ever seen... and met two columbian social workers who taught us a lot about their country. We found a hostel with a beautiful view, and very strategic location...Imagine watching the sun rise on the snowy mountains on top of an island...from your bed!!! We were pretty physically tired so didnt take the hike to the northern part, althou for sure its less touristic than the south. next time...
We re missing all the pictures of the isla del sol and the dancing kids of amantani...but right now we
re dying for a beer after walkin all day in the jungle, and this computer s driving us nuts! We left La Paz (our next destination after the islands of titicaca) yesterday cuz we like to be lost in the wild better...but we ll talk about that later.
Take care kiddos
Emilie and Marion
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0322s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Blanquette
non-member comment
joli playground citoyennes du monde!
Iep iep chiquillas bolivianas! J'suis contente de vous lire en Bolivie aprés la Peruvie votre voyage a l'air de bien suivre son coiurs c'est cool! Et je suis racvie d'avoir vue des photos du lac titicaca ,ca me fait cho no coeur de repenser à ca!! Vosu repartez samedi de Liamsi j'a bien compris? Moi ca va bienm je file doucenment vers l'Equateur . Mais en fait je vais vous detailler tout ca mieux dans un mail parce que j'ai des photos special dedicaces a vous envoyer!!! La bisette!