Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Puno and Lake Titicaca

I traveled to Puno and 3 islands on Lake Titicaca in Peru and Copacabana, Isla de Sol and La Paz in Bolivia this past weekend and just got home last night at midnight. It was an amazing trip that was clearly documented by the 300 plus pictures I took! It was a long weekend filled with many new opportunities for cultural learning. This entry will be long so get ready!

There were 8 of us that took a bus to Puno at 10:15 pm Thursday night that only cost S30: Brittany, Bryant, Laura, Andrew from Pittsburg, Armando from Texas, Allison from California, Kim from Sydney, Australia and I. The ride there was extremely shaky and I about fell over trying to get up to us the bathroom in the middle of the night. We arrived at 4 am and went to a hostel called Pirwa that was recommended to us by a friend.
We slept in the freezing hostel for a couple hours but had to be up for our 2 day tour that was picking us up at 8 am. We only had to pay S60 for a boat trip to 3 islands, one of which we would be spending the night with a family and all meals were included. They took us to the Puno port where we bought some sugar, pasta and apples for the family we would be staying with because they live 3 hours from Puno by boat and therefore don’t have many resources on their island.

The first set of islands we visited were the floating Uros, which are man made by a reed called Tortora. There are 60 of them that each has an elected president for 6 months who is in charge of making decisions for the island and sitting in the watch tower for many hours of the day. They speak a language called Aymara and live in small huts made of the reed that they allowed us to have a look inside. We sat around a circle and the president explained to us how the islands are made. First they have to set the foundation of very large mud blocks in the lake. They stick pegs in the mud at different points of the island and then wrap rope around to hold them in place. They put many layers of the Tortora which needs to be replaced every 4 months in dry season and every 2 weeks in wet season or their island will float off. Their homes are placed on shorter and more Tortora so it is raised above to avoid flooding. It was very interesting to listen to how they make these islands on their own and how they can manage to live in them with no resources. We even got to taste the Tortora since it is similar to a banana and can be peeled. It didn’t taste like anything but maybe a less flavorful and softer form of celery. It was very wet and when peeled a white color unlike the tan color it is to make the islands and huts. When we were leaving the women sang “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” to us in Aymara, Quechua, Spanish, English and Italian! They gave us all hugs and waved goodbye.

The men of that island took us on one of their elaborate reed boats across to another Uros island. The sun was very hot on Lake Titicaca, yet the breeze was cold. This island was even bigger than the last and had its own restaurant! There were women selling the usual tourist knick-knacks and I bought a pretty pink bracelet from one of them. On this island we were able to get our passports stamped. Of course we weren’t in another country, but it was just a fun little memento to remember our time on the floating islands.

We got back on our boat for a 3 hour ride to the natural island we would spend the night on called Amantaní, population of 8,000. Some of us sat on the top deck and enjoyed the heat of the sun on our face for the trip across the lake. The scenery was wonderful. The sun was making the whole lake sparkle and we were cruising through mountains on either side. Brittany and I talked with Andrew for almost the whole ride about his 4 ½ years he spent in the Army. He told us stories of his time in Germany and then in Iraq. I had never sat down and talked with someone who had been oversees in this war and it was amazing to hear how much bravery and pride he has.

We arrived on the island where we were greeted by our new host mom named Matilda. Andrew, Bryant, Brittany and I stayed in one house and the other 4 were in another. She wore a green skirt, a white tunic with flower embroidery and a black shall over her head. This was the traditional dress for all the women on the islands of Lake Titicaca. She took us to her home which was up on top of a hill and a difficult walk with all of our luggage and the broken cobblestone path. On the way up we saw herds of sheep and donkeys eating grass by the shore.

We walked into her home which had no roof except for the bedrooms and kitchen. There was no running water or electricity and they had to run everything on solar power and gas. She had a nice husband and two young sons that were happy to have us staying there because it meant they would get some of the money we paid for the tour. Come to find our however that they family only got S10 per person for giving us a room and 3 meals! Apparently the tour companies nowadays have been exploiting the families on the islands and barely giving them anything for their hospitality to tourists. It is quite sad that their culture and traditions are being walked all over for only a couple soles. Had I known this ahead of time I would have left them some extra money or bought one of the hats that Matilda was knitting while we were there.

The family fed us lunch and then we had an hour to spare before we were to meet the rest of the group at the plaza for a hike up to some ruins. The four of us decided to go down to the shore to do some exploring and take some pictures. We made our way back down the rickety path and were met by some children playing jump rope. We joined in and played with them for a bit. One of the girls brought her baby lamb down and I got to hold it and take some pictures, so of course I was more than delighted! We walked along the shore for a bit and felt the water with our hands, which was pretty cold and not intended for swimming. However, we saw kids playing in the water and doing their laundry so they must be used to the cold temperature.

We met up with our group in the plaza at 4 pm and started on a hike to some ruins on the island called Pachamama. On the way up we passed locals coming down with their sheep and donkeys and there were cows grazing on the terraces. The views just kept getting better and better as we got higher and higher along the path because we could see all of the lake and as we got the top we could see the Bolivian side as well. A full moon had risen on one side of the sky and the sun was starting the set on the other; it was magnificent. There were vendors at the top of the ruins trying to sell us things but we were too engulfed in the views and snapping pictures left and right to notice. The sky was pink and purple and we were there to see the sun fall below the mountains in the distance. At that point is when I realized I was freezing! I had on only a long sleeve shirt and so we all made our way back down quickly.

Our house mom met us in the Plaza and at this point it was dark so she lead us with a flash light back to our house where we went straight to our rooms to bundle up in more layers of clothing. Brittany and I lay down to wait for dinner and ended up falling asleep but were awaken by the youngest son banging on our door and saying “cena chicas, cena, cena!!” We had some authentic coca tea, warm soup and a rice and bean mixture.

After dinner it was time for our mom to dress us in the traditional clothing to go to a party for some traditional dancing. She dressed Brittany and I in the skirt and belt very tightly and tunic and head shall and then the boys wore a poncho and a funny little hat. We walked back up to the plaza where the rest of the group came as well dressed in the Amantaní outfits and we took many pictures of how funny we all looked in the getups. There was a band that played and we danced around with our families for about an hour before heading back to our houses.

Before changing back into our own clothes we made Bryant wear the skirt and headdress and Brittany and I put on the ponchos and hats for some pictures. Brittany and I thought we looked funny in the traditional dress, but I must admit that Bryant looked even better in the skirt than we did. We changed out of our outfits and the 4 of us decided to go back down to the beach to look at the stars. Like the rainforest, the stars on Lake Titicaca were amazing. They were so bright and they filled the entire sky. We only stayed out for about 20 minutes because it was cold, we had to be up early and the donkeys and sheep were so loud and annoying we had to get away from them!

Brittany and I shared a room that had two beds, but we decided ahead of time that since the island was so cold we would share a bed in order to share body heat as well. We brought my sleeping bag and an extra blanket and snuggled into bed to keep warm with each other.

The little boy woke us up again in the morning banging on our door at 7:30 saying “desayuno chicas, desayuno!!” The husband sat and had breakfast with us and asked when we would be heading back to the United States. We told him when but said we didn’t want to since Peru was so beautiful and we were having such a fun time. He told us that we were lucky to be going back to the United States and should be thankful that we live there. He gave us his address: Correo Central Puno Isla Amantaní Comunidad Pueblo Ccolono Oswaldo CNR: Mamam Perú. Then he asked for us to write down our names and emails for him.

Our house mom walked us down to the dock and we said our goodbyes. Our boat left at 8 am and we continued to our next island, Taquile. It was an hour ride to this island which was the most beautiful of them all. When we got off the boat we had to hike up hill a half hour to the plaza. I have definitely been using my inhaler a lot more this summer with all this hiking up hil! We had about a half hour to take pictures and hang out until lunch. There were little girls surrounding us trying to get us to buy their bracelets and I of course gave in and bought one from a cute little girl named Amalina. On this island some of the kids make their money by getting you to take pictures of them or with them and then getting a tip. Many of the children in the plaza were asking us to take pictures.

We headed up a path from the plaza to a restaurant for lunch with a great view of the countryside and the lake. The main fishing industry of the lake is trout and so that is what I decided to order for lunch. It was amazing! My dad would have loved it. They seasoned it perfectly and it was very tender and fell right off the skin of the fish. At lunch, our guide explained the hats that the men of the island wear. If a man on this island has on an all red hat, it means it is married. If a man has on a red and white hat it means he is single. If that hat is to the right side he is looking for a girlfriend, but if it is to the left side he is only looking for fun and adventure and nothing serious.

After lunch we took another trail down the opposite side of the island where our boat met us to take us back to Puno. When we arrived back in Puno we went to the bus station to get our tickets to Copacabana, Bolivia the next morning. Only Bryant, Brittany, Laura and a Slovenian girl named Nika we met and I would be going on and the rest were headed back to Cusco that night. The 5 of us staying got a hostel and then all of us went out for dinner on the main street in Puno called Calle Lima. We got a 4 course meal for only S15! It was a fun ending for the 8 of us to a great weekend but there was still a lot more in store ahead for the 5 of us in Bolivia!

The hostel we stayed in was very nice! The owner reminded me of Patti and she took care of each of her guests like they were her own children. When it was time for bed she brought us all a hot water packs to put in our sheets to warm up our beds. There was free internet, hot water, comfortable beds, cable TV and in the morning a full breakfast with bacon, eggs, warm bread, juice, tea and fruit. She even ran out and got us a taxi in the morning and negotiated the price to the bus station for us. She gave us all hugs and advice for when we get to Bolivia.

We got to the bus station and got on our bus to go to Copacabana, Bolivia at 7:30 am. Crossing the border was a whole different story! Read on in the next entry about my experience at the border and my time in Bolivia.

-Hillary-

No comments:

Post a Comment