We arrived at Puno which is the closest port in Lake Titicaca by tour bus from Cuzco after our Inca Trail trek. I LOVE how SAS arranged transfer who picked us up from the bus terminal to our hotel. We had dinner with Nidhi and Gowri from the trek and we had some good conversations. The next morning was another early one and we got picked up again to go to the dock and got onto a small boat with about 16 or 18 people. The first stop was about 2 hours away and it was one of the reed islands of the Uros people. I knew it was made of reed but had problem visualizing it in my head until I saw it. It was really a floating platform in the middle of the lake made out of reed. When you step onto the island which is no bigger than say half a basketball court, you can feel you feet sinking a bit as it's not rigid. There are on average 10 families living on each island and they have been doing this since pre-Inca times. They use the water from the lake and they sell handicrafts and hunt for some birds and fish. Simple life it really is. Karen said she would go crazy if she had to live there. I think I will too. The Uros people wear very bright color dresses, and it almost seems like it's a costume for tourists but apparently not. They also have these boats that are also made out of reeds and we took one from one Uros islands to another one. There are about 50 of these islands in Lake Titicaca and we were told the younger generation doens't want to continue living on them so the numbers will eventually go down.
After that we headed on to a real island called Amantani which is another 2 hours or something like that. The island was not very big, and there are terraces for farming also from pre-Inca times, some as old as 2000 years old which is quite amazing. The lake I forgot to mention is at 3800m above sea level and it is the highest lake of its size in the world. As soon as we got on Amantani, we were greeted by our hosts for our homestay and the whole group split into twos and head home with individual host. Our host was a nice lady called Gladys who had a big smile but didn't talk too much. Karen and I followed her walking across fields and then on small paths to her house. She told us she only had home stay visitors once every two weeks. I guess the villagers rotate so even though I'm sure there are tours to the island everyday she doesn't do this everyday. There are no cars or roads on the island either. The guide told us there was no electricity too but its not true. They had some electricity but only for one light bulb in each room. We had a brand new looking toilet too in a small hut outside the house where the door was so low that Karen bumped her head into, but no running water connected so there was water in a bucket for flushing. Our room was on the 2nd floor and it was quite decent. Karen was warned about this "harsh" set up for that day so she had to bite the bullet this time. Gladys made us lunch consisted of some vegetable soup, fried cheese and followed with Mona tea at the end. It was a very tasty meal actually. Gladys lives with her daughter only and her parents and brothers seem to live in the house just across from hers. I think she told us her husband lives in Lima or another big city with another wife...My spanish wasn't good enough that I thought I should just leave it as that without asking more. All her family works in agriculture here on the island. Her daughter Elizabeth is 10 years old, and Karen and I talked about that's how old we were when we met each other in Grade 3! So funny to look at Elizabeth and imagining how young we were when we met.
Later on that afternoon we took a hike to the small hill on the island which has some more ruins, a temple for the pachamama, the mother nature. It was getting cold actually but the view was fantastic with the sunset and one can also look across to the Bolivian side of the lake. Everything was just "tranquillo". The village has actually really nice paths made of stone. The village a lot tidier and nicer than say San Andres in Guatemala where I stayed for 2 weeks, probably since the Peru has done a lot more for their tourism. When night fell, the whole island got pretty dark since even though there were street lamps all over but they were not lit for some reason. We had another good meal, and then Gladys took out the traditional clothes for us to wear to go to the "dance" in the community center for the tourists. There is a black head dress which is a long piece of cloth with embroidary at the end, and a blouse and a long skirt. Mine was bright purple and Karens was bright pink. We arrived with Elizabeth who also dressed up and there was a traditional band playing traditional music. The tourists slowly started showing up. The dance they do was quite simple really, and we just followed along. It was fun for a bit but we left within an hour before it got too boring. There was no shower for the night but since it was cold I didn't feel like I needed one. I slept amazingly well in my bed who has a huge dip in the middle.
The next morning I woke up for breakfast at like 7am. Long before that I heard but I slept throught when people were banging gongs and making other noises, probably as early as 5am. It turned out to be some celebrations for the Pentecost, some Catholic festivities. There were kids with their faces painted black going to people houses, danced around and played with some flat pebbles which were symbolizing money. After quick breakfast, we already had so say goodbye to Gladys and Elizabeth. Karen purchased some knitted wool hats that Gladys made for a bit more that she asked for as a good tip, and I also gave her US$20. It's probably a lot more than what she gets for hosting us but $20 to me is not a lot of money, while $20 to her is probably a big help.
Then we continued on the anothe island on Lake Titicaca but it was not very impressive. The men there were these funny hats with different colors depending on their marital status, but other than that nothing too special. We had lunch, and then we had to head back to Puno. I think the highlight of the tour was definitely the homestay experience.
We had a 5 hour bus to catch that night @ 7pm to go to our next stop Arequipa, the 2nd largest city in Peru. We had time for some internet and dinner before our transfer taking us to the bus terminal. Transfers are great as it will be a bitch for us to find that bus terminal in a place I barely know. So as our first delay in our trip (everything else worked like clockwork), the bus has been delayed till 8:30pm. It was good that there was an internet cafe also at the bus terminal to kill some time. Finally the bus came at around 9pm and we probably didn't leave the terminal until more like 9:30pm. Its a double deck bus and we are on the upper level. The seats can be reclined all the way down (more than those on a plane) and there was even a leg and foot rest. The seats are quite comfortable but it was very stuffy in the bus. We saw this tourist couple next to us and they didn't put their packs in the above compartment probably being afraid of them getting stolen, so with their packs on their laps, they didn't look too comfortable and the woman kept twitching and turning the whole way. Now that our scheduled arrival time is at least pushed till 2am. I was asleep on and off, and then the bus had stopped at a checkpoint. There were these cops or military men I wasn't sure who came onto the bus and was searching for something. They started picking on this Peruvian woman who was half awake only and scrambled to show her bag. They made a big fuss but the authority didn't find anything. I looked at my watch and it was like 2:30am already. Geez! So finally we were awaken again by the lady on the bus who tells passengers when they are at their stops. (Thank goodness for this service) It was 3:30am then! I was thinking as I was walking to the exit of the terminal that hopefully there would still be cabs as I don't think our transfer will still be waiting. WRONG! I saw "Debbie Sit" on a sign carried by the only man waiting at the terminal. Karen and I were soooo impressed, and grateful! The driver has been waiting since 11pm. Holy smokes. We got to the hotel at like 4am, tipped the driver quite well, and we had to get up again the next morning (really in a few hours) for the tour pickup at 7am. This was the longest day of our trip.
