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Leaving Cusco to Puno was another interesting experience. First we have realized that Peruvians don't queue up in line anywhere, we stand in line after someone is being helped and Peruvians (mostly women) cut right in front of us. So we have learned just to keep our arms out and block off incoming people. When we arrived to the bus station to take us to Puno we handed a lady who worked with the bus company our receipt or proof of payment for our bus trip. In exchange she gave us nothing and told us which terminal we needed to go to. Shortly we realized we did not have actual tickets and everyone else did. So we went back to the ticket booth and we asked for tickets, overall was quite a ridiculous ordeal.
Seven hours later we arrived to Puno and saw Lake Titicaca for the first time. We got off the bus and took a taxi to our hostel, where we stayed for three nights total. Since we arrived around 4pm we got settled and went out to dinner. Overall our stay in Puno was pretty uneventful with the exception of our Lake Titicaca tour and our homestay with a family on Amantani Island. We left Puno in the morning on the 10th and we got on a boat to visit Uros Floating Islands, Amantani Island and Taquile Island.
After about 30 minutes on the boat we reached Uros floating islands which is comprised of 87 islands made out of a particular type of reed which is called tortorro. Oh and this reed is also edible but only the bottom white part, the green part will give you the s***s apparently. There are roughly 2,000 people living on these islands and their houses are also constructed out of these reeds as well wood planks. We reached one particular island and learned how these people live and how they construct their homes. Every ten days they must replenish the reeds but first they cut large squares of a soiled root from the bottom of shallow parts of the lake and then they use dried reeds to layer a ground so people can walk on top. So the islands don't move around they use anchors to keep the islands steady. Once the reed ground has been placed these people construct their homes out of reeds and wooden planks from the mainland but originally they were only constructed out of reeds. There are roughly 2,000 people living on these islands and there was even an elementary school constructed where the kids learn Spanish since their native language is Aymara.
An interesting fact about these people is that they believe in three main principles: don't lie, don't steal, and don't be lazy. Basically the exact opposite as the rest of the world. They also are very community oriented, a "I scratch your back today, you scratch my back tomorrow" mentality. When we visited these islands, I could not help but be absolutely amazed by these people and their innovative ways of living. I cannot blame these people for wanting modern technologies so some did have radios or TVs but they did not use electricity, they used solar panels which is phenomenal. After we learned about how they live and the construction of the islands we took a ride in their reed boats to another island and we got a passport stamp of Lake Titicaca, since it is the world's largest high altitude lake.
The lake from Peru to Bolivia is 103 miles, so overall a huge lake. The deepest point of the lake is around Isla Soto which is 925 ft deep. After we visited Uros we continued on our incredibly slow moving boat to Amantani Island. After about three hours we reached the island where we met our host family. This experience is probably the most special that I have experienced in Peru, at least thus far. Our host mom was this incredibly tiny woman (probably about 4'10") named Silveria Romulo and she was the most endearing and happy woman I think I have ever met. Her native language is Quechua but she also spoke Spanish and not a word of English. Michelle and I got some good Spanish practice and we also were grouped with a lovely Dutch couple, Chris and Crystal who spoke no Spanish, so I got to act as the translator with my broken Spanish skills. Silveria's son, Albran, was such a curious and verbose child and was asking us questions like if our father was still alive, how old our parents were and where they lived. It was quite hilarious.
When we arrived to Amantani Island, Silveria walked us to her house and had lunch waiting for us. I did not want to leave this island, the roughly 4,000 people who live there are mostly vegetarian and it was such a beautiful place. After we ate lunch we left Silveria's house and walked to the main square where there was an annual festival in full swing. I still have no idea what the name of the festival was or the significance, our guide only said it was a once a year artisan festival but virtually every citizen plus all us tourists were crammed into this tiny square. The locals were dressed in full traditional clothes and performing a series of dances, I feel very lucky to have been able to witness it even if I had no idea what the context was.
After we watched the festival for a while, our guide took us to the top of the island where the Pachatata Temple was (Father Earth- Pachamama is Mother Earth) so we could see the sunset over Lake Titicaca. And let me just say that the sunset was breathtaking and we had an excellent view of the vastness of the lake as well as the snowy mountains of Bolivia called Cordillera Real. After we took photos and simply enjoyed the view around us we started to make our way back to the town square to find our host mom. By the time we made it back, it was dark and the festival was still occurring. Also the majority of the women were dressed exactly the same so it was hard finding Silveria. Her 12 year old son, Albran, ended up finding us and walked us back to their home (Silveria met us half way) and she had an amazing meal ready for us. Always started with a soup and then some delicious rice dish of sorts.
After dinner, Silveria dressed all four of us in traditional Quechua clothing and we made our way to what our guide called the Discotec but was just a room filled with locals and tourists all dressed up in traditional clothing. We stayed for about an hour and listened to a local band play music while all the tourists and host moms joined hands and danced around in large circles. Then we left and headed back to go to sleep.
We awoke the next morning to a pancake breakfast prepared by Silveria. Did I mention that I didn't want to leave haha. Alas we left after breakfast and made our way back to the boat to head to Taquile Island. After about an hour we reached the smaller island that has about 2,500 citizens living there. Taquile Island was similar yet very different than Amantani. On Amantani the women are the weavers and the men work with the agriculture but on Taquile it was the opposite. The women would make the thread but the men would weave, there was even an entire building dedicated to tejidos de hombres, or weaving men. We also learned about their customs and the reasons why the people would be wearing certain clothing items.
For the men, there are four different hats that they would wear. The first hat was worn by boys until they were about five or six years old. The second hat indicated that a man was single. The third hat represented a responsible married man. And the fourth hat was more rare to see because there were only about 25 and they represented the authority on the island. Every two years the people choose who the authority would be thus it keeps changing. Also along with the hats each man would have a different woven belt as well. For the married men, the women make the belts partially out of their own hair as well as alpaca wool that has been dyed naturally with a plant to make it very white. Overall I think it is a great system, I would love to know which men were married and which men were single just by looking at their hat haha.
For the women they would wear a type of black shawl that had four Pom poms on each corner. The significance of these Pom poms were interesting. The women would use two of them to represent their emotions as well as a yes or no response if they were asked to marry. One represented yes or happiness while the other one represented no or sadness. We were only on Taquile Island for a couple of hours to learn about their culture and to have lunch and then it was time to board the boat again to return to Puno.
One thing I haven't mentioned were are travel companions. We met two Scottish girls from our hostel, DeDe and Saskia, as well as four Spaniards, Agus, Guillermo, Pedro and Alberto. On the three hour boat ride back we all sat on top and talked about the injustices of the world and we basically decided that we were Team Save the World. When we got back to Puno, we stayed one more night and went out to dinner with the Scottish ladies. The next day Michelle and I went to the Bolivian Consulate in Puno to get our visas for later that day. And this where I need to rant for a moment.
I had no idea how difficult it was for foreigners to enter the US and the ridiculous obstacles our government sets up. So in turn some countries charge Americans a substantial visa fee because of course all Americans are rich. So $160 USD later we got our visa and get our bus to Copacabana. We are finally in Bolivia on the other side of Lake Titicaca so I will post another blog from there.
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