Final stop in Peru: the city of Puno and Lake Titicaca. There is not much significant to mention about Puno except that its the gateway to Lake Titicaca - the world´s largest high-altitude lake. Here we booked a 2 day tour to visit the islands in the lake, spending a night with a local family.
Starting early in the a.m., we boarded our little boat of 20 some people and headed out on the beautiful blue waters. Our first stop was to the Uros floating islands. When we pulled up to one of these man-made creations, it seemed like something made up for a movie set, not a place people actually lived! the islands were created centuries ago by native people hoping to escape the Incas, and are basically giant floating rafts (that go very deep) constructed out of reeds. The homes, storage spaces, boats...pretty much everything was made from these same reeds. The people were all dressed very colorfully and were very welcoming to us tourists, even though it must be tiring having strangers on your island all the time. It seemed like such a happy place, although living there must be quite challenging!
After a morning at the floating islands, we boated further out to Taquile, where we would be spending the rest of the day and night. Shortly after our arrival to the island, a handful of local people came to meet us and pairs of us were matched with families we would be staying with. We were taught a few words and phrases in the Quechua language to be able to communicate with our family, but quickly discovered they were just as comfortable speaking in Spanish to us. We had our own room at the family´s house, and it appeared that they all shared a common room for their sleeping quarters. There was a separate small building where the kitchen was, with a large fireplace, dirt floor, and a table with a few boards surrounding it to sit on. We had our own outhouse, which we found out was much nicer than the one the family used. There was one spigot outside with running water, and a few lines of electricity to allow a few light bulbs throughout the property. Our room had a gorgeous view of the lake and herds of sheep bleating outside our window. We were "warned" that our meals would be basic, but I thought they were a welcome relief from all of the fried and meat heavy menus I was used to having to pick through. Lots of veggies, potatoes and grains, and nothing fried! My stomach finally felt settled after days of not!
After our late lunch, the mother of the family, Billma (we think that was her name) brought us to a meeting place in town, walking uphill for what seemed an eternity! Here we connected with our guide and other group members to go for a walk to the top of the island. Tito, our guide (not the one from the Jackson´s) talked to us about customs, etc, and how it is tradition for couples to live together for 3 years, and if they don´t separate, they get married forever, and only on certain days of certain years. This tradition started ages ago, and the two peaks we could walk to were Pachatata (male) and Pachamama (female) - which symbolized the prior story. we went up Pachatata, where we saw the temple up top. Legend is that you are to walk around it 3 times counter-clockwise while making a wish. We figured...what the heck. It also provided a beautiful view of the lake and the island.
When we got back to our meeting place it was dark, and boy was it ever dark! Barely any electricity on an island means a whole lot of black! We connected with one of the daughters from our family and she walked us back home, quite unphased by the darkness. After our dinner, the same daughter returned to our room with an armload of clothes, ready to dress us for the dance. She put a prettily embroidered shirt, petticoat and skirt on me, and cinched it till I could barely breathe! Then a brightly colored sash and head covering completed the traditional outfit. It looked pretty funny with my pants underneath and my hiking boots, but it was so chilly outside I didn´t care. Guy was presented with a large poncho and a knitted wool hat with llamas across it.
We went with Billma to the "dance hall" where a dozen or so others from our group were, as well as a few locals and musicians. Billma showed us both the few simple steps to dance as a pair, and we also danced as a group. I´m sure the dance gets a little old for those who host tourists, but we had a good time. We were ready to go after a handful of songs, and so was Billma.
After a frigid night, we woke up with the sun and had a pancake breakfast, while last night´s dinner was being reheated for the family´s breakfast. It was very obvious during our short stay that guests had a way higher quality of living than the local families. We bid farewell and thanked our lovely hostess, then got into the boat for a short ride to our final stop, the island of Amantani. Here, we did some more walking (uphill, of course), saw some beautiful scenery, and learned about this island´s unique customs. Tito explained it as "communism that works." Everyone works together and sells their items in a few stores, rather than on the streets (like we´ve seen everywhere else), then split the profits. On Taquile, they had donkeys or horses to haul things uphill, but on AmantaniPuno.
We left the country of Peru early this morning and are now spending our first day in Bolivia. Looking forward to what this country has in store for us!
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