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Published: February 8th 2009
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Next stop, Puno, Peru! Puno is a fishing village in southern Peru on Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable waterway in the world at over 12,000 ft! It was a 6 hour ride from cusco and was a pretty mild trip. We spent a day walking the city and had a late dinner on crowded cobblestone streets which came to life after dark. The next morning at 6 we left for a 2-day island tour of lake titicaca by boat. We visited 3 different islands, Uros, Amantani, and Taquile - and stayed with a local family at Amantani. As many of you know, i have spent (what seems like) a good part of my life on a boat project, so i immediately noticed a couple ¨deficiencies¨ on our tour boat....such as no radio, a toyota truck steering wheel, and an iginition that was operated by pulling a string...sooo we were happy to find calm seas for our first 1 hour leg to Uros.
The people of Uros live on floating islands made of reed root masses that they basically anchor in the lake. There are hundreds of these islands each with about 20-30 people living there, barefoot and in
thatched huts. A man we met had lived there for 25 years and showed us his one room hut with blankets in one corner as a bed and 3 ducks hanging on the opposite wall for dinner....mouth watering huh?
We spent the 3 hours to Amantani napping and meeting the 20 or so other travelers on our boat. Amantani was an incredible rocky island covered in levels and levels of terraced family farms. We met a family at the boat dock who welcomed us into their humble 2 story mud brick home to spend the night. They prepared lunch, dinner, and breakfast for us in a mud floor kitchen by candle light. We quickly found out there was no electric or running water as we were shown to the outhouse and led around the island in the dark. I (john) played soccer (or participated anyway) with some locals consisting of older men who were barefoot but in suites with top hats, women in traditional clothing, and the local high altitude soccer team!...quite an experience, i was gasping for air after 5 min! Afterwards we hiked to the top of the mountain at the center of the island to watch
the sunset. A traditional dinner of potato soup, and carrots, and egg, with rice, and a cup of mint leaf tea was served. We were then suited up in traditional clothes and marched off to a local dance....we left whatever energy was left on the dance floor and only vaguely remember crawling under a pile of handmade blankets to sleep that night!
The next morning promised to be exciting as we waited to board our little tour boat amidst stormy seas. Only 30 seconds into the 1 hour ride the boat submarined under a large breaking wave and we found water coming in the roof and thru the windows...we continued to take these waves head on and each one nearly covered the boat! It wasn´t long until the back deck was full of passengers hanging over the sides! Our captain eventually turned out of the waves and we took them on our side rolling 5 or 6 feet at a time the rest of the trip to Taquile. Taquile was another beutiful island. We hiked about an hour from the dock to the town where we had lunch of fresh caught fish. The island is controlled by a group of older men who decide the laws make all the decisions (for instance, women are to be married between the ages of 15 and 20, after that they cannot marry by law, they are considered to old) and also where visitors eat when they arrive. No complaints though, the food was very good and only about $5/person. The boat ride home was uneventful, the seas were calm and many of us sat outside and enjoyed the ride.
This post finds us in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile which is an oasis town in the Atacama Desert. We have swam in salt lagoons watched sunsets on the salt flats and are doing a hike tonight to a ´moon valley´ which is supposed to be done at a full moon (which happens to be tonight!) All is good, we are headed to La Serena, Chile tomorrow which is back on the coast. We hope everyone is doing well and we´ll talk to you soon! Also, a special hello to Mrs. Cross´s class and my buddy D'anthony!
Adios!
John and Chrissy
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Iratxe
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Marineros de agua dulce ;)
Nice waves in the boat! .... hahahahaha..... So, how's your Spanish coming along? It must be pretty decent by now seeing that you're even spending nights with locals... Chrissy, did you keep the skirt??? The colour suits you perfectly ;).... Not so sure about John's "sombrero / gorro" though...