Puno is not a particularily amazing place. First thing in morning, headed off to the port to catch a boat into the lake to visit the Islands. There are 3 main islands you can visit on this side of the lake. We set off at 8.20 and first went to Uros! This is actually a group of islands. they are also known as the floating Islands.. guess why... beacuse thy are floating. They were made by people to escape the incas, and are basically made of reeds! about 3 metres deep. They need to relay the surface every 2-3 weeks. to do this they need to pick up the houses. They are anchored down by rocks. But they move the islands every year and have a race between the boats because of all the sewage from the islanders. Also, all the islands are at a different stage of evolution. some have just houses, others have international telephones, restaurants, everything. The wierdest thing was that they all had TV's, radio and solar pannels.
We also got to try island platano. which is basically eating the bottom of the reeds like a banana. They were a bit watery, but the kids live off it, coz its full of iron! Also, walking on all the reeds feels like your ona bouncy castle.. it was Awesome!
Next we went to Amantaní. We were given a family to stay with. After eating a very interesting peasants lunch consisting of delicious soup, but followed by squeaky cheese and 'pirple things' called oki, which i think are part of the carrot family! We chilled out for a short while in the mud house, and then went for a walk to the top of the island, to the temple. The views from there were amazing. They had an interesting museum! it was sporting a hollow pig, which they say they used to use as a backpack! (from what i understood). We stayed at the top till sunset, when it became freezing!! then walked back down to the house and i went to watch the mum of the house cook. Another reason why i went tot the kitchen was that it was well and truly the warmest place!!! It was so nice to just sit and watch. The whole family gathered, like they did in Colca cannoyon. The litttle boy took a liking to me(2.5yrs).. so i played with him, but it was really wierd, coz the family kept telling us all that he had no father. Everyone in the damily individually told me this!! WHY!!
Dinner was a huge improvement on lunch.. and then afterwards they family got out all the traditonal clothing, and dressed us up! the boys were first and they were lucky! they managed to get away with just having to wear a poncho and a peruvian hat! Us girls on the otherhand had to wear a traditional whitel shirt with embroidery, then a huge skirt which made our bums look about 5 times their actual size, and a belt which was tied as tight as a corset.. so walking was definitly a challenge.. especially with the lack of air.. as we were at an altitude of 3800m
This island was so bizzare.. there were street lights everywhere, and lighbulbs, but NO electricity. Apparently the government stopped pumping gas and petrol to them 3 years ago. When we arrived at the party there was a traditional band, and everyone was dancing. The family gave us a bit of a lesson in peruvian dancing.. and that was awesome! All in all a fantastic day!
The next morning after a freezing night in the mud hut we set of for the island of Tequlia - not actually how you spell it, but thats how you pronounce it.
The island itself was pretty similar to the other one. But we didnt really do much other than go for a bit of a hike, get forced to eat food we didnt really want and then we went back on the boat for a 3.5hr journey back.
When we got back we were in a mad rush to catch a bus to the border. There were going to be apparently no buses on the wednesday due to a strike, and I definitly didnt want to be staying in peru a further 2 nights. We managed to make it onto a bus, but the border shut at 6 which meant we were needing to stay the night at yuntungo the border town.
This village was bizzare. When we got off the bus in the main square at 8pm, the whole square was full of male locals. The square was completely bordered by fast food stands. There were also fooseball tables in the square. Then we went to the hostal. 9people. We had additions from the people we met whilst visiting the islands on lake titicaca. - The hostal was unbelieveably cheap, but there were no showers. In the bathrooms they had a hole where the showerhead was supposed to be, and holes for the knobs, but NO shower! Who would think to build a hostal without showers!!!
After checking into our hostal we decided to go out for dinner and the only thing other than street stands were retaurants selling solely CHicken!
I then got a migraine and went to the farmacy. No one there. Empty.
Then had an incident when asking for the bill for our chicken.. firstly they wouldnt give us our free water, then the restaurant owner was asleep on the floor behind the bar!
Then i went to buy some biscuits off the street and was met by an intelligent peruvian. I paid him, and he didnt seem to understand I needed change... probably because he was serving 2 people at once and it baffled him!
Then went to an internet cafe. As soon as i sit down a guy asks me if i speak english, Made the biggest mistake by replying that I do. He then would not shut up! he just kept asking me wierd questions about Peru. I thought i was going to kill him! Didnt he ned to write emails too!!! In the meantime 2 o the people I was travelling with were in hysterics listening to my conversation.
Finally just had to leave... early start the next morning. Had the Border Crossing.
fooseball tables
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