Righ then. Episode 2. After we left the floating island, we all went (me, the gals, and our tour group of about 20) to another island on Lake Titicaca (which was not floating) called Amantani Island to stay with host families for the night. It was so so beautiful with a sort of pebbly beach and was really hilly and countrified with loads of little fields. 4000 people live on the island but we only visited one community so it felt loads smaller. All he ladies came to collect us in pairs to go and stay with them and they all wore puffy green knee length skirts, a white flowery shirt with a multicoloured scarf tied round their middles and a big black shawl with flowers on over their heads and shoulders. They looked very cute but from the back kind of like little puffy nuns. (Everyone here is very very short. I feel guilty because most people have to crane their necks to talk me and my legs dont fit in the seats properly on the buses.) Anyway I was staying with Milly and we were with a girl called Gloria, 2 people who I assume are her parents (although they looked incredibly old) and apparenly her 2 sisters although we never saw them. The houses on the Island are all made of mud and the one me and Milly stayed in looked like it had been built room by room and had a little courtyard in the middle with potatoes in that looked like carrots but purple. The house had a second floor but with only a teeny wooden staircase outside up to it and then two planks to get across to the next room. Scary. Our room was upstairs but we didnt have to cross the planks. The toilet was outside through a little corn field and was a courrugated metal box. The door didnt shut properly and the toilet looked like it had been nicked off the side of the road and didnt flush but it could have been much worse and it smelt ok. Some houses on the island have solar panels for a bit of electricity but ours didnt so we had a candle in our room and a head torch for going to the toilet. The moon was so bright that at night, outside was pretty much as bright as in the evening and all blue coloured. In the day time our tour group all walked to the top of the mountain which was very high and in the night we had a fiesta. We all had to dress up in the islands national puffy nun dress (the blokes had o wear huge ponchos) and dance around. In the Peruvian clothes we all looked like a mix between Russian dolls and Babushkas but more ridiculous because it was freezoing and we had 2 jumpers and a pair of trousers underneath. Our hosts all took us to to the fiesta and danced wih us. Peruvian dancing seems to be a mix of running and flinging with the overall intention of making your skirt swish as much as possible. It was pretty tiring. It was really strange sleeping in a room with only a candle in that night and having to search about for the head torch if we needed the loo but we felt very poetic and I{m sure from the candle light alone I could feel my IQ going up. The next day our hosts made us pancakes for breakfast which were awesome and we also had this tea called Munya - I think its spelt somethihjng like that. I hate tea but this was amazing - like mint with lemon. Munya is this herb which can preserve things too. Even meat!

Ok Ive gt to go but there is a computer in our hostal lobby so hopefully I will write more later (although I would not be surprised if its broken by the time I come back. My shower has been stuck on freezing for days and the only man who can fix it is currently busy renovating the kitchen and will be on reception later. I asked him how many hours sleep he gets a night and he said seven but I sure that cant be true. Right now he is using the biggest mallet Ive ever seen to knock a hole through a wall) Anyway Ciao for now xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx