Day 23

Wednesday 24^th November 2010

Goes without saying really, we were up at 06:30 again. I was under the impression that this was a holiday, I have never been up so consistently early!! Today we begin our 2 day boat trip around Lake Titikaka or translated from Quechua - “GreyPuma”.

We met the rest of the group in the lobby and waiting for us outside was the little tuk tuk type things….(rickshaws???), but you sat on the front and the bloke cycled behind you. These were quite fun in theory but when you the throw the Peruvian traffic into the mix as our guide put it “its adventurous, but safe…. Sort of”.

We hopped aboard and made our way down to the harbour, a little hair-raising but it felt more like real life Mario Kart without the shells etc… everyone willing their driver to over take.

We stopped a few blocks from the harbour at a little store where we bought gifts for our hosts on the Islands. We purchased some rice, pasta and a sort of cake that the people of Amantani Island like to eat at Christmas.

We boarded the boat and headed off to our first port of call, the reed islands, home to the Uros peple. The island we visited was called Sayapacha meaning beautiful earth. These islands are made up a layer of roots which are buoyant. They source them from a few kilometres away so they cut them up into 3 foot square blocks and float them across, the blocks then knit back together to form the base. On top of this they put lots of reeds layered in a crosshatch kind of style, these need to be replenished weekly to replace the decaying ones underneath, what a fascinating way to live!!

The President of our island told us how things work. There are five families on the island and everybody has to muck in when it comes to relaying the reeds or hunting/ fishing etc. If some of the other families don’t feel like your pulling your weight, they get the big saw out and cut you adrift. MINT.

He also said that if you have any problems with the neighbouring islands you simply float away to somewhere more desirable. DOUBLE MINT!!

The ladies then took us into there homes and dressed us up as locals.

We had a bit of a wander around their island, they have solar panels donated from the ex-presidente, which provide the families with lights and essentially TV, you gotta keep up with America’s Next Top Model when you live floating on a lake.

We bought a tapestry and boarded the boat for the next leg.

Our next stop was the reed island next door but we only spent 10 minutes on here, they had a primary school there and a supermarket. Unbelievable.

Back aboard the boat the last stop of the day was where we would stay for the night. Amantani Island. This is the largest island on the Peruvian side of the lake. We arrived at about 13:30 and were introduced to our family for the next day or so. Our host was called Baleria, like Malaria with a B!

She guided us up to her “house” and showed us to our room. The room was no more than 6” x 8 and had three beds in there. I sat on one of the beds shaking my head and Suz went off to find Balaria to help make lunch.

Suz was given the task of shelling beans and peeling potatoes with the biggest knife I’ve seen, I thought a finger was going to go flying any minute. I choose to stay in the room and read Keith Richards autobiography ‘Life’. (good book, I’ve been reading it for about a fortnight and would recommend it).

I was called down for lunch which was quinua soup made out of the beans and potatoes and some grain which was pretty nice as it goes. Especially when you se the ‘kitchen’ facilities she was working with!

I reckon I have made better dens than her house. The second course was rice, more potatoes and a slab of cooked cheese. The cheese was ok but really squeaky as you ate it. Hmmmm

After lunch Balaria decided she would go for a walk, which is fine apart from the fact that we had to meet the rest of the group at 16:00 and she was supposed to be showing us where this place was. It was five to four so we decided to go and try to find them ourselves.

We found the group at the top of the hill where we were supposed to be having a game of football with the locals, unfortunately the pitch was being ‘renovated’ so that didn’t happen. The rest of the group decided to walk to the top of the island to watch the sunset, me, Suz, Jos, Angela and Tracey decided to sit in a local café and play Yatzee – a dice game. What a random day.

Our guide eventually came to find us at 18:00 and led us back down to the house, we had a bit of a relax and then tea was served about 19:30. We had more soup and then a pasta and potato dish (always double carbs!) which seemed to have meat in it but we were told they only have meat on very special occasions so I’m not really sure what it was.

We were dressed as locals for the second time today and were guided off to the local dance hall for a bit of a party. The local musicians came in and played some traditional music whilst the rest of us had a bit of a knees up…. For an hour.

That was about all we could manage – dancing at 4000m really takes it pout of you! Then the music stopped and everybody went home. It was 20:30!

We slid underneath the blankets (6, maybe 8 of them, which means you feel like you’re sleeping in a straight jacket) and quickly found ourselves in dreamy dream land. Another exhausting day in the bag.