Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca!

2 blogs in one day I know, but we've been busy and the internet is free here! We're heading to Cuzco and hiking to an ancient Inca city over the next 8 days, so we probably won't be blogging any time soon.

About a 20 minute boat ride from Puno there's a community of people who have built practically whole villages on man-made islands made from reeds. They harvest the reeds for everything; eating, building islands, building houses, ropes, burning, it's amazing! We stopped there on our way to an overnight adventure on an island in the middle of the lake (Amantani). Our guide explained some of their customs and traditions, we explored the tiny little island that we were on and even rode in a reed boat! They farm fish and grow vegges all on their islands which are layers and layers of reeds (a new layer each month) supported by a porous floating root stock. Very cool.

Two and half hours on a very slow boat took us to a port on Amantani, where pairs of us were matched up to a local family to be hosted. Nik and I were with an older couple – Felix and his wife, who's name was complicated and not easily remember (how slack of us!). The language barrier was fun, they spoke a local language and only “picca espanol”, which ended up being just enough to match our little Spanish :-) Their little house is fairly humble, but bigger and more sturdy than places we saw in Nicaragua. Their kitchen/dining room is a separate mud brick building with a dirt floor. They fed us amazing veggie soup and potatoes and rice for lunch, so much food! They let us help do their dishes (cold water, squatting on the floor), and we made friends with their cat, but not their donkey. Then we headed up to the village soccer field, maybe half way up the island. Locals v Tourists... eventually the tourists won, but I think we had lots more subs than they did :-P Nik & I trekked up to the island's highest point, which is at about 4100m, 300m above the lake level. A pretty steep climb, certainly proving that we aren't fully used to the altitude yet! The view from the top was well worth it, and we caught sunset on the way down. Dinner with the family (soup, potatoes, rice & pasta... carb central!), then we dressed up in the traditional dress of the island natives and headed up to a hall for a traditional dance with all the others on our tour. Lots of energetic stomping and twisting, not a whole lot of structure, but a fun experience.

This morning we traveled to another island (Taquile) and hiked 35 minutes to the plaza. Same people group, different traditions (dress, customs etc). Here the guys knit long hats that have special meanings depending on the way you wear it, and when you decide to get married, you have to then live together for a year as a test... that's new! Amazing trout for lunch, accompanied by a not-so-crash-hot pipe musician.

Adios!

A little reed island village

Two Peruvian guys, the one on the left turned out to be our host "Papa"

View from the top of the island

Nik & I in traditional dress with our Mumma

This lady was herding sheep

Harry (one of our tour mates) was teaching this guy gangster handshakes :-)

Walking down to the dock on the way back to Puno