Hi everyone!
So my 2 day trip to Lake Titicaca was amazing. I thought I was gonna miss out a little by not being able to do it by kayak but it was just as amazing by boat. I went with a small group of about 20 people (I was the only American!) 1 guide, a captain and some crew. It was the most rinky-dink little catamaran but I guess that's what you get for 35 soles!! It actually broke down a whole bunch of times - two of the times we needed to flag down another passing boat to give us a push!
So the first stop was Islas Uros, which are these tiny little floating, man-made islands that have whole entire communities living on them. There's even an actual "medical hut" and tons of little houses - all built out of this reed that grows in the lake. It was really kinda bizarre, especially since they are located so close to the main land. They have adjusted somewhat to modern day living since they have things like TV and cassette tape boomboxes (powered via their solar power panels which I took pictures of. I'm so curious as to what cassette tapes they listen too!!). But for the most part, they still live a pretty primitive life. Very cool.
After that, we floated on down to Amantani Island, where I did my homestay with a local family of the island. Its actually a really touristy thing to do here and the families that host the tourists do it often. But I got grouped in with 3 other German girls who were super nice. As soon as we got to the island, Simon, the father of our host family, greeted us and took us back to his house where he showed us our rooms and then fed us a really yummy lunch. So before I go any further, both Amantani Island and Taquile Island, are very small islands and are made up of these beautiful rolling hills that are perfect for irrigation and farming. This means that the people that live on these islands do just that and only that and haven't really changed their way of living for the past few thousand years or so. Therefore, there are no cars, no roads, no bikes even. They hardly rely on any electricity or plumbing. And no cell phone service?! Obviously, some changes have taken place like better schooling, and tourism, etc. But in order to get from one place to the next, you actually have to walk. So I spent the majority of the past 2 days, hiking up stone walkways and steps, cutting through farmland, passing sheep and alpaca, almost getting run over by a bull (literally. I thought it was cute and took a picture. He thought I wanted to fight him.), PLUS being over 4000 meters above sea level, it was sooooo exhausting. At times, every single step felt like a struggle! But surprisingly, as soon as you got to a stop and caught your breath, you weren't tired at all. Kind of a weird feeling. Anyway, the rest of my stay with Simon was cool. He fed us dinner, and afterwards his daughter dressed us up in traditional garb and led us to the "town fiesta" which was of course like 3 farm fields UP the friggin island. All very touristy, but really neat.
The next morning, Simon and wife fed us another yummy meal and sent us on our way. The next and final stop was Taquile Island where we spent most of the day hiking the island. It was really tiring, but at every single turn there were just completely amazing views of the lake. And it was so, so peaceful. We had lunch at the top at this little restaurant owned by this cute little old lady. It was absolutely perfect weather so lunch was outside, overlooking the lake. Some more hiking occured, more great views, yada yada yada, and then we eventually made it back down to our boat and spent the rest of the afternoon sailing back to Puno. Since it was so incredibly beautiful out, I was able to lay out and take a nap on top of the catamaran for most of the way back.
So. I booked a bus ticket (NON tour bus and way cheaper) back to Cusco tomorrow morning. Got a few errands to run in the city and then Saturday I start my hike to Machu Picchu!!!! Woooohooo!!!
Okay good night and I love you!!!
Aileen :)
PS
Pic attached is the 3 German girls walking ahead of me, with Titicaca in the background, on the way back to our boat on the island of Taquile. Just BEAUTIFUL!!!
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