The Islands Of Titicaca

Sunday October 31.

Picked up and taken to the port where I met up with the rest of my group (16 people), my boat and my guide. We sailed slowly out of the harbour as our guide explained to us all we would see and be doing over the next two days. Lake Titcaca is huge! I envisioned a small lake up in the Andes. It is at 4000 metres and very large and has lots of mountainous islands in it. Half of it is in Peru and the other half in Bolivia. All the islands we visited are in Peru. About a half hour from the port we sailed through a reedy area to Isla De Los Uros. This is a floating island made of reeds! There are apparently sixty such islands. The base is blocks of reed roots and then they put layers of reeds on top. The people originally settled out on the lake to escape from enemies. They became fisherman and small farmers, actually growing some crops on the islands. Now tourism is their main industry. They allow us on their islands, give tours and boat rides in the hopes that we will buy some of their beautiful handicrafts. It seems everyone knits here.

After the explanation of the history, and the tour, some of us took a ride in their reed boats to another island. There we had time to shop a bit more before boarding our boat and heading out into Lake Titicaca. We sailed for three hours before arriving at Isla Amantani. This is where we will spend the night.

Upon arrival we were met by people from the local community who were going to be our hosts. We were divided up, introduced to our new "mama and papa" and sent off. I wound up with a Dutch couple and Mario and Maria were my hosts. We walked to their house, were shown our rooms and then fed lunch. The house is better than I anticipated, but is made of mud bricks and is situated on a small plot of land with sheep in the back. The island has no cars at all and about 4000 inhabitants. There are also no dogs allowed, but there are numerous sheep, donkeys and cows. My room, was basic but clean and I had Harry Potter sheets (obviously this was their child's room before he moved out). The food was basic and vegetarian, rice, potatoes, tomato, cucumber and ochra. The washroom was also better than I expected. It had been recently tiled, had a proper toilet but no water. You had to dump a bucket of water down after your business. There were no showers facitities either.

Then we had a couple of hours to mingle with the family and settle in. The Dutch couple knew some Spanish so we had a basic conversation and our new hosts showed us some family photos.

Then we all mustered in the town square and met our guide for a hike up the island to a religious temple area. We climbed 500 metres and walked along a rocky path much like the Inca Trail. This path was higher than the Inca Trail and caused lots of people trouble. I seemed to be okay with a slow and steady pace. The view from the top and all the surrounding islands was spectacular. On the hike I fell into talking with Pamela, her brother Brian and her girlfriend Alison, all from Scotland. We stayed up there for an hour watching the sun set.

Then we walked back down in the dark (thank goodness for headlamps) and back to our homestays for dinner. Again basic, but I liked it better, a currie soup, rice and fried potatoes and tea.

After dinner, Mario and Maria dressed us in typical costumes (I wore an alpaca wool hat and poncha) and led us to a fiesta. It was held in a large bare room illuminated with one lightbulb. There was a band of four musicians who played some Peruvian music and Let It Be! All of our tour group was there in costume (it was Halloween appropriately enough) and our hosts. There was beer, pop or water for sale. I splurged and had a coke. We were encouraged to dance. I was dragged onto the floor a couple of times by my "mama". I sat and talked a lot to the Scottish group. Party lasted for an hour and a half and then it was back to our homes for the night.