One slow boat: Lake Titikaka

Celebrate! A photo is added - Uros Islands

Yesterday morning we rocked up at the dock just before 7:30 to see if we could sort out a home stay on Amantani Island. This turned out to be extremely easy. There is a window for each island (Uros floating islands included) where you go and ask about the boat trip and the overnight stay. We didn´t really need to be there that early the boat didn´t leave until 8 or something.
Anyway, you pay the captain directly (30Sole each) and the lady you stay with on the island directly too (30sole each). It works out much cheaper than doing a tour and we found out from one of the families that there are only 4 families that the tour agencies work with on the island. Our whole boat was filled with people self-touring, so it seems more common than I thought (very hard to find information on).
First stop was the Uros floating Islands. They are very tourist driven, but I was prepared for this. We got a bit of a speech/explaination when we arrived, in Spanish, so we didn´t understand all that much. Other than, apparently Lake Titikaka looks like a puma if you turn it upside down... No it doesn´t, just like I don´t see the Puma in Cuzco´s map... Originally I wanted to try and stay the night on Uros but after doing a bit of research (even harder to find information on overnight stays on Uros), I discovered it was horrendously touristy. As in you get your own little hut with a proper bed and there´s porta-loos and showers. Not exactly living with the locals. As it is, the huts on Uros are kitted out with solar pannels, TVs and radios. One lady remarked that she thought it was cool. It just gave me an image in my head of them sitting in front of their TVs until tourists turn up. It is pretty interesting, the islands and the way they use the tortura reeds. The islands themselves are made by cutting cubes of floating earth (please remember this was told to us in Spanish so my details are hazy) and they are then tied together. layers and layers of reeds are then laid on top and the islands are anchored to the bottom of the lake with rope attached to a wooden anchor. The also eat the reeds. The bottom part, near the root, after they take off the outter layer. It must taste sweet because all the little kids were absolutely shovelling it in the whole time we were there. There was an optional boat ride in one of their reed boats, which we didn´t do because it was extra. The people who did do it told us that the girls who went on the boat with them sang a song, and then proceeded to hold out their hats for tips, even the little kids.
Back on the boat and it was over 2 hours to Amantani, which is the farthest island from Puno port and is a proper land mass island, not a reed island. When we got off the boat we were assigned to a lady to take us home. We were with 4 other people. Which surprised me, I assumed each family would only take a couple of tourists. I was a bit worried we would have to share a room with the others, but she had 3 separate rooms, each with a number of beds. The houses were a lot larger than I expected. We settled into our room and I introduced myself to the non-functioning plumbing. Lunch was soon served and it was exactly what I had read on other blogs; Quinoa soup followed by halumi cheese with potatoes and rice. The one type of potatoes were sweet and seems to be more like a type of tuba. Lunch started out super awkward. Eventually I gave in and asked the host her name, hoping that would get things started. After more minuted of silence I finally introduced myself and everyone followed suit. Finally the awkwardness was broken.

Lunch!

After lunch we had some relax time, where we decided to walk along the stoney shore. It turned out to be stones and a lot of litter and some bones, perhaps goat bones. Eventually it was time for out walk to the top of the island. To Pachatata and Pachamama, two ceremonial grounds, sort of on twin hills. It´s a pretty intense climb but we still had ages to wait until sunset, even after climbing the second hill. So we talked to some of the people who had been on the boat with us. The sunset was a non-event, the clouds covered the horizon. We had forgotten our torches so we had to stumble back in the half light, and then the dark.

Looking back towards the mainland

Dinner was simple; vegetable soup followed by fried vegetables and rice. The soup seemed to be thickened with something like amaranth. Our host told us that when there are enough tourist there is a dance in the town hall, but not that night. I suspect that might be more of a thing done when a tour group is on the island. The other main difference is the tour group people are given beenies, we were not. Neither of those things worried us though. We had a nice early night. I gave our host a small bag of mandarines and a couple Australian tea towels, she seemed genuinely grateful for both, which was nice. It didn´t seem the other tourists brought gifts, although I was careful to give ours when they were not around because I didn´t want to feel awkward. The next morning, breakfast was pancakes and bread with jam and then it was back to the boat. We did really enjoy our overnight stay. But, it is more like a stay in a family run hostel than what I would consider a home stay. We only saw glimpses of our host´s family and we didn´t eat meals with her at all.

This morning we stopped for a couple of hours on Taquile Island, which is right next door to Amantani. It was a very steep climb from the dock to the town, and when we got there we were at a loss for what to do. The path split in two so we took the right and just walked. We found a little ruin and sat there for a bit until we thought we should find some lunch. So we went back the way we came and took the other road. We found a restaurant that seems to cater more for tour groups, and not long after we ordered, a large group showed up. The trout was nice and it wasn´t really overpriced so we were happy. With full tummied we decended the many steps back to the boat for what seemed like an even longer trip back to Puno. 

Today we bought our bus tickets to La Paz. We decided to skip seeing the islands from Copacabana in Bolivia, I´m sure they can´t be that much different to the Peruvian side. So, hopefully the washing we put in to the hotel before we left for the island stay is back by tonight like they told us when we got back today, since it´s all of clothes, except what we are wearing...

By the way, I´m going to chuck a couple photos in some of the other posts now, since I have access to a computer and Brandon is asleep. In case you want to have a looksee