Lake Titicaca
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2009
1
35
44
Trip End
Jul 24, 2009
Puno, Peru
Saturday, June 20, 2009
We learnt about the traditions of the island. It is effectively a communist island so everything is shared. They hold an island meeting once a week. Women walk to the meeting behind their husbands so they don't offend anyone. A marriage is a big celebration for everyone, except the bride and groom. The groom sits on a chair for 4 days, staring at the floor in front of him with his arms crossed. His wife sits on the floor in front of him with her arms folded, also staring at the floor. Everyone else has a party. Each to their own I guess!
We got a boat to our next island where we would stay the night with a family.
On arrival, we walked up to the island's primary school, followed closely by some sort of Peruvian marching band. Then we played football against locals. They were pretty good. It was first to 8 goals, swapping ends when one team got to 4. We were 4-2 down at half time but won 8-5 or 8-6 or something. Nathan scored all 8 goals. I went off before the end with a 5ht metatarsal injury. After football, we met our host families. Me and King James went with Victor to his house.
The house was very basic. There were 4 rooms with an outside area in between them. The rooms are built from mud and straw. The kitchen had a wood fire and a chimney for cooking. We bought a colouring book and colouring pencils for the kids, and rice and pasta for Victor and his wide.
Communication was difficult because be barely speak Spanish and they don't speak a word of English. They all whisper to each other because they are very shy. It must be one of the world's quietest societies. They have a pet sheep, which was kinda cute.
Before dinner, we played with the little baby - 3 year old David. We got a bit excited with all the tickling and let rip with a huuuuge fart. Probably soiled himself because he smell lingered for a long time. Then he seemingly wet himself, at which point we distanced ourselves from him.
Dinner was quinoa soup then some rice and potato thing which was really nice.
We got given local traditional clothing. Males wear a poncho and cowboy style hat. Girl's wear about 5 skirt layers, a big woolly top and a hat which sits precariously on their head. We went to the school hall for a dance show and then took part. The music and the dancing was relentless and went on and on but was good fun. We hit the hay afterwards and I had a great sleep.
The next day we bid farewell to Victor and his family. We got the boat to Lake Titicaca's floating island, made entirely of reeds. It's quite amazing. Layers and layers of reeds make up the base of the island and the buildings, tables, chairs, beds etc... are made of reeds. We took a walk around then got a reed boat to another island. It's a surreal collection of islands, especially when not far away is a solid mainland but they live on a floating island instead. And every 40 years, they have to start rebuilding their island because it starts to smell and becomes too close to the bottom of the lake.
We got our boat back to solid ground in Puno and stayed overnight there.
