The Islands of Lake Titihhahha

We have had another incredible experience to check off our list. Spend a night on an island with a native family, dress up in their typical, amazing, brightly colored attire, dance and make fools of yourself in the best way possible. Wasn't that on all of your bucket lists?

We arrived in Puno after a night bus that was about 7 hours. The buses in South America are an interesting experience. You can take a 20+ hour bus ride but have these really big comfy seats almost like a first class airplane seat that leans back all the way. We took the bus company San Luis and paid a full 40 soles (about 15 bucks) for our ride. Our seats were green leather and very worn but also comfy.

Ali in the green leather seat

We left at 10 PM and arrived in Puno around 5 AM with one false alarm. At about 3:30 AM the bus driver opened the door to our compartment and said something about Puno. Sarah bolted out of her seat and was like "We gotta go!!" But Ali explained that we in fact did not have to go as we actually had another hour and a half and Sarah quickly fell back asleep. We actually were just stopping in Juliaca.

We took a cab to our hostel, Puma Backpackers Hostel which is this homey little place run by a Peruvian couple and their kids. It's definitely a change of pace from the booming pop tunes of our hostel in Cusco. We met this awesome guy name Aytam who is from Leeds in England but lived in Israel until he was 11. He worked at a camp in the Poconos this summer (although it was for retired adults) we have been trying to play Jewish Geography, but no luck so far. We explored a bit of Puno, climbing to a large statue overlooking Puno and also a giant Condor about 500 steps up.

Ali with Aytam at Breakfast

View from hike up to top of Puno of Lake Titicaca

Us after climbing up the hill

Ali and Aytam

Sarah and the Condor

Yesterday we were picked up around 8 AM for our adventure on the islands. The boat was a rickety old thing and our group had about 15 people from Germany, Australia, the US (Salt Lake City) (Yes, they were Mormons and yes we learned lots of cool things like did you know that in Utah you can't have two alcoholic beverages in front of you at a restaurant? Or that the percentage of alcohol content in beer is specifically lower at 3.5%? Budweiser and Coors etc make beer specifically for this demographic. Or that you can't order a drink without having food first at a restaurant?), Spain and China.

View as we headed out of Puno

Gorgeous Lake

Our first stop was at the floating Islands called Uros in the middle of Lake Titicaca. These people have lived on these floating islands that they themselves build of dirt blocks and reeds for hundreds of years. They construct the island and typically about 10 families live on each island. Each island has its own President and the island we visited the President was Marta. Marta explained if one family doesn't get along with another or is lazy and not doing work they literally cut them off the island (with a saw).

On Uros with our new friends Andres, Andi and Alex

Ali with sitting on one of the huts on the floating island

Marta the Island President demonstrating how they construct the islands

Sarah giving candy to one of the boys on the island

Ladder on the island

Cutie

Island Baby

Checking out the artwork

We explored the island a bit and some people took a ride in a boat constructed only of reeds that kind of looks like two gondalas put together with a tower on top. They called this the Mercedes Benz we decided to opt out and save our 10 soles. Next stop was Amantani the island where we stayed for the night with our family. We had a three hour boat ride that was very slow and incredibly choppy as we got closer to the island.

Mercedes Benz

Sarah on the way to Amantani

Long boat ride!

It was really rocky towards the island

Almost there, also always rockin the Redskins cap! RGIII!!!!!!!!

Here we come

Once we arrived we were introduced to Clara the matriarch of our family. She led us to her house where we stayed with our new friends from Salt Lake. They served us a delicious lunch of quinoa, vegetable soup (really typical for Peru) and some potatoes, veggies and a slice of cheese that they grilled.

Arrived at Amantani

Clara and the other Matriarchs

Walking to our house

They had some awesome sheep

Lunch

Our host families loom

Happy to be there

View from the house

We then met up with the rest of the group to climb to Pachatata (Father Earth) which is at the top of Amantani. It had an incredible view and by the time we climbed back down we were ready for dinner.

Horses (taxis) on the way to Pachatata

On the way to Pachatata

Hi!!

On top of Pachatata with Aytam

Awesome view

Bro-ing out

Some ruins

Cactus Flora

Incredible view

Western Wall of Pachatata

Dinner was more veggie soup with a yummy grain and potatoes followed by rice with potatoes , peas, carrots and eggs dish which was also really good. Then the fun began as our host mom's daughter, Vicki, dressed us up in the traditional clothes of the Amantani women. She put a white, brightly embroidered blouse on us with a very bright skirt. We also had a bright cinturon (belt) and a black scarf with bright embroidery to be worn on our head like our hair.

Spinning in our host kitchen

Some of the group dressed up

Now it was time to party. We went to the community room and met up with our other friends from our group. The men were dressed in ponchos and we were ready to dance. We met up with our new best friends, an amazing couple from Colon, Germany, Alex and Andy who looked great in their ponchos. They are doing an around the world trip for the next year or so and we had a great time with them.

Sarah told them that it was Andis birthday

Full dance mode

We of course love to dance so we were spinning in the middle of the room, doing the running man, and of course some line dance moves. The band took a break and the next time Ali turned around she saw Sarah with the gigantic drum around her neck. Sarah then proceeded to play a few songs with the band including a rendition of Bob Marley's Redemption Song (the only song they knew in English).

Sarah and the band

After a night of dancing and fun we had to go home at around 9:30 as Vicki was tired and we had breakfast at 6:30 AM. We got home and goofed around a bit in our room before bed. Sleeping was great it was incredibly quiet and tranquil the only thing that woke Ali was the donkey in the morning which was the perfect wake up call. We had breakfast of one pancake each with a piece of bread with jelly and butter options. We then left Amantani for the next island called Taquile.

Us with one of our host daughters

Cool way they carry their babies

It was about an hour to Taquile and we climbed for about 40 minutes until we reached the main plaza. We hung around, enjoyed the view, bought some of our favorite chocolates (Sublimes) and headed to lunch. We had an unbelievable view of the entire lake and surrounding islands as we ate an overpriced, but delicious lunch of soup and trout (more like salmon than trout) with veggies, rice, and papas (French fries). After a wonderful two days it was time for a 3 hour boat ride back to Puno. (So glad we had sunscreen because it was quite sunny).

On the boat headed to Taquile

Taquile

Heart stones

Only 6702 KM to NYC

View from lunch

End of the trip!

We are heading to Arequipa tomorrow by bus, not sure when, we are just going to show up at the bus station. We will be hiking Colca Canyon for probably 3 days (which is more than double the depth of the Grand Canyon) and then taking a week of Spanish school and staying with a local family. We are going to try and utilize some Couch surfing in Arequipa before we stay with the family, hopefully it works out. Our time in Puno was amazing and now onto our next adventure.

Love to all,

A & S