Taquile and Amantani

After a 15 minute down to the port in a "bike cart", we arrived in the port of Puno. We bought some fruit and rice for our host families, then hopped on board a private boat to Taquile Island. The ride took about three hours - we sat up on the roof for a while, but after about an hour it got too cold and rough, so we had to go back to sitting inside the boat (which smelt like exhaust - ugh).

We did the "easy" hike to the top of Taquile Island (if you can call any uphill hike above 12,000 ft easy) and where given some time to explore the town centre. On this island, the women spin the wool and the men do all the weaving. The men also weave the hats they were to indicate their status: red and white hats mean the guy is single, an all red hat means that he's married, and a colourful hat or black bowler means that he is a community leader.

The restaurants on the island take turns being open and all serve the same thing at the same cost (to keep things fair). The meal for this day was freshly caught trout. We took the harder route back down to our boat (all stairs) and part way out into the lake, V, D and I jumped off the top of the boat for a quick swim. The water was freezing cold, but it was an experience - how many other people have swum in a lake that high? We got to Amantani about two hours later. We were assigned "mamas" for the night and were shown around there homes where we would spend the night. I was too much of a chicken to spend the night with a family by myself, so K and I shared a family. Celia, a 28 year old woman, was our "mama". She shared the house with her parents, sister, and nephew. She spoke a few words of English, but most of the family only spoke Spanish (except her mother who only spoke Quechua).

We met up with our group again in the town square and decided to hike up to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset. Of course, there was a cloud bank on the horizon, so there wasn't much of a sunset to watch! We came down and had a hot chocolate in the small bar, then went back to our families for supper. As they were cooking, we practised the few phrases of Quechua that we were given, much to the amusement of the father! Supper was good - a corn and vegetable soup followed by stir-fried potatoes, peas and egg on rice (lots of carbs in their diet).

After supper, Celia dressed us up in traditional clothes and brought us to the hall for a dance - they do this for all the tours. K was just given a poncho, but I had a blouse, two skirts, and a long wool shawl to wear. At least I wasn't cold. The dance was fun - hard work though! After about two hours, we headed back to our house to bed. I tried to find the best bed of the three in the room I was given, but they were all pretty bad. The one I ended up sleeping on sagged so much that I could feel the boards underneath it!