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Wilson's World Tour
We had quite an eventful trip from Cusco to Puno, we had booked a royal class bus, but when we got to the bus station it was a local bus. Sam Wilsonator argued with the ticket office and managed to get us a small refund, but it still meant a faily painful six hours !. Puno itself is very uninspiring place, very dirty, we were glad to be leaving on the boat in the morning. We had booked a two day trip which involved staying on one of the islands with a local family.
Lake Titicaca is immense !, if it where in a set of lake Top Trump cards it would be your favourite. Its 3809m above sea level, the highest navaigatable lake in the world. It is 165km long, 60km wide and 8560km2 ! Because of the altitude the air is particually clear and the horizon seems endless, also the water appears a really bright blue.
We got to the port at about 0800 where we met our fellow travellers and got aboard our boat. There was probably about twenty of us on the boat, some on the roof some down below and we set off for the Uros, the famous floating islands. The uros people fled to the lake many centuries ago from the aggressive Inca people. They construct their islands from the naturally growing Buoyant reeds, some of which are the size of half a football pitch !. They also use the reed to build their houses and canoes and eat it !. When you step onto the islands you sink a couple of inches with each step which is a lttle disconcerting, but when you get used to it is quite a nice cushioning feeling. They live in a very simple way but still manage to churn out lots of gifts made of reeds for the tourists !. We visited a couple of the islands and were transported in one of their reed canoes, it was about 25ft long totally constructed of reed. Its a cross between a Gondaler and a chineese Dragon boat as they have dragon like figure heads on the front.
From here we got back on the boat and enjoyed a three hour boat ride to Amantani where we would be staying the night. We were met by the women of the village as we got off the boat and then were picked as to who would be staying where. It was a bit like a PE class where you stand there hoping not to be the last ones left. Thankfully we werent and were picked by Maria a really smiley freindly looking lady. She walked us up a really steep path to her house, Sam and I were both struggling with the altitude as she skipped up !. We werent sure what to expect from our accomodation as the islanders live a really basic farming lifestyle with little influence from the mainland. We had nothing to worry about, her 'house' was great. It had a beautiful courtyard, on one side was their mud and straw built 'kitchen' with wood stove, another side was their living accomodation and then the third side was a tiny shop on the ground floor with the guest room above. It was really basic but really clean, a lot better than some of the hostels weve stayed in. The door to our room was about four foot tall and once in the room i couldnt straighten up, a bit Alice in wonderland. They dont have any electricity so we had a candle in the room, it was so nice to have no western distractions. It was so peacful on the island, there are no cars, very little homes have electricity, its so peacful. Also beacause of the lack of electric light, the stars were amazing and the moon acted as our torch.
Maria made us a typical meal of vegetable soup, with a high percentage of potatoe, followed by potatoe, sweet potatoe and a really strange squeaky cheese ! Its really different as they obviously eat for nescessity not worrying about flavour, whereas we generally eat for pleasure. We felt bad about leaving anything so we forced it down hoping she wouldnt offer us seconds !
In the evening they had organsied a dance for us. They dressed us up in their typical clothes so Sam had a embroiderd white shirt, big puffy dress, a belt which almost stopped her breathing and a beautiful shauwl. I had a poncho and a wooly hat ! We walked with Maria to the place where the dance was, as soon as we got there she grabbed our hands and dragged us into the mele. It was really nice to see that the locals were enjoying it as much as we were, Maria had her oen year old son on her back wrapped in a blanket and was spinning around with the best of them !
The next day we said our goodbyes to Maria and her family and got back on the boat to the island of Taqulie. It is slightly larger than Amantani and sadly a little spoilt. They do have a couple of restaurants on the island who all charge the same for a two course meal, 10 solas which is two pounds ! We had soup (seems to be the stable) follwoed by grilled fish of the lake, beautiful. We found something realy interesting out over lunch. All the men of the island wear wolly hats a bit like nights hats and according to how they wear them dictates a lot. If they are red, they are married, if they are white their single, but if they are white with the bobble at the back of thier head they have a girlfriend, if it is to the side they are on the prowl ! What a great idea, all those wasted evenings !!!
We then left the islands and got the boat back to the dock, it seemed to take forever and im sure ours was the slowest boat on the lake, The wind also got up and rather than being a mill pond faily large waves were created that I dont think our boat was desinged to manage ! We eventually got back to Puno but Sam and I both felt like we were stilll swaying all evening when we were on terra ferma !
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