Going native........after a fashion!
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2007
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91
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Trip End
Oct 04, 2008
Puno, Peru
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
On our first night we managed to struggle down to the center of town....huffing and puffing and shivering all at the same time (somthing that requires a great deal of concentration i assure you!) We passed a jolly brass band playing outside a church (part of the celebrations building up to assumption or somthing)....after a VILE meal we returned to bed and tried to stay warm...well dad claimed that he was warm but i find that very hard to believe!
Anyway we spent the next couple of days acclimatising...we visited Sillustani the site of huge burial towers of a aymara speaking tribe and Chucuito a pretty little village with a huge church and the templo de la fertilidad which contains large stone phalluses which women would sit on to become more fertile!! And of course we made a visit to Punos cathedral...or maybe its a church and the 'beautifully curated' Museo Carlos Dreyer.
After all this acclimitising we decided something more adventurous, so Dad and I booked us all on a two day tour to the islands on lake Titicaca.....
So all packed up (the rents even managed to fit their stuff in one small bag) we were collected in a minibus and transported to the 'port' where we successfully located our boat and were given the obligatory panpipe recital by random peruvian. We then chugged off to los islas flotantes, literally floating islands constructed of reeds....makes walking a very strange sensation indeed, hoping that your foot will stop sinking before it hits water! After an explanation of how the islands are made, a guided tour of peoples houses (?? I think most of them actually live in puno now!) and of course the purveying of many priceless goods (mostly made of reeds...all made on the island - yeah right!)...anyway, after all that, we got on a reed boat and our hosts sung us a farewell song in every language present in the tour group! We then made our way across to a second island....presumably to buy more priceless artefacts....strangly reminiscent of what we had seen on the previous island...intresting!
Anyway all this reeding business had to stop at somepoint (much to the relief of dads walet) and we were ordered back onto the 'speed' boat for a long ride to Amantani where we would be staying the night!
Once we had arrived on the island we were allocated a family to stay with and walked to their humble abode....which actually turned out to be quite luxurious compared to what I was expecting - there were proper beds and everything!! We were fed lunch which was quinoa soup followed by rice with vegetables and the squeekiest cheese in the world!! We were then given some time to rest before hiking our way to the football stadium...which in true south american style was the most solid looking construction on the entire island! From there we continued UP to the highest hill on the Amantani, on which is situated a temple which one must walk round 3 times in a clockwise direction, whilst continuould wishing the same thing! Wishing complete we then washed the sun set, and descended the hill as the most enourmous moon rose over the snow topped Bolivian mountains in the distance. After supper, our family dressed up in traditional dress and took us to the hall where a party was being held....we laughed at each other in our traditional jeans and skirt combo and joined in some enerjetic traditional dancing which basically involved holding hands and running around manicly...sometimes round a fire! Finally all the hosts did some rather extraordinary performances and we headed home for some well earned rest. The last thing I heard through the paper thin walls (apart from dads snoring) was my mother on her return from the outside squat toilet 'well darling, if you are going to the toilet now, all I can say is good luck'!!
The next morning we breakfasted early - ONE pancake...how anyone it meant to start the day on that I am yet to find out - and headed back to the 'harbour' where we got back on the boat and headed for Tacquille!
Here we started with an epic walk which started with a sharp incline and then continued to amble up relentlessly until a small town...which I think was the main one where we stopped for a talk about the island and learnt all about the mens hats and womens skirts! Most memorable of all were the hats that signify a mans marital status, a certain pattern of stripes signifies the wearer is single, another and he is married. This led me to thinking that a similar idea could be adopted in the UK but we could go a step further.....We could have patterns for single, married, gay, GSOH, likes long walks and reading by the fire etc!
After the talk we didn't have to walk much futher before we reached our lunch stop where we at the most delicious fresh trout - straight from the lake yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!! We then took a lot of steps down to the shore and boarded our boat that took us all the way back to Puno again, from where we checked into a different hotel and collapsed in a crumpled heap!! Not for long though as we planned to meet up with some people from our tour group for pizza! After 2 hours of waiting our drinks arrived it was quite some time later that any food appeared and when it did I found a nail in my pizza! It all quite hysterical, especially when, as usual, the simplist meal ordered - omlette - arrived ½ an hour after everyone elses food!!
Our last few days in Puno were spent chilling out! We visited the Yavari a ship built in Enland and hauled over the andes by donkeys, admired some ducks and shopped and subsequently dropped in some markets!
We left Puno by train and wound our way through stunning scenery and dusty towns and villages. We were served delicious food by rediculously flamboyent waiters and learnt how to make the famous but disgusting drink pisco sour! We finally arrived in Cusco in the dark......
