Days 25-26: Lago Titicaca

June 10-11, 2018
For sure, this trip was my favorite of all the ones I did (and each of my trips were super fun). My friend and I hopped on a bus at 10PM on the 9th to go down south to Puno. We arrived around 5 the next morning. The tour company picked us up at 8 and put us on a boat to our first destination: the floating islands of Uros. These islands are really cool. The people there actually made the islands out of some kind of reeds. They continually are making the islands and every 3 months or so they have to add another layer of reeds to keep the island up. If I remember right, the islands stay up for about 50 years. Also, the people on these islands speak Aymara. Until then, I had only heard Quechua and, obviously, Spanish. It was at these islands that I got to ride on a reed boat. We hung out here for a while then got back on our boat for a 3 hour ride to Amantani Island.

The boat.

Floating Islands of Uros.

These reeds grew out on the lake close to the shore. What the people of Uros use to build their islands.

Some of the ladies let us into their homes and let us try out their clothes.

A home.

The ladies handmade these textiles.

Reeds.

Reed boat. Took a little ride on it.

Three of the little girls hopped on our boat and sang for tips.

Amantani Island was where we were going to stay the night with a local family. We had lunch with them and then went on a hike to the Pachamama temple to see the sunset. By the time we got up there, a storm had rolled in. It was so windy that I almost fell over, but we stuck it out. I'm so glad we did. It was beautiful up there. The island (and this whole trip) was incredible because, unlike everywhere else, it was not overrun with tourists. It was so serene.

View from my room.

Lunch! That's cheese on the left, some different kinds of potatoes, yucca (I think), cucumber, and quinoa soup.

I mean come on. It's sheep.

View from the top. It was cold and windy and all worth it.

Hiding behind a rock. The storm still found us.

After the hike, we had dinner with the family. Simon and Candelaria were their names. They were about 60 years old. One of their daughters and her young son also lived there. At dinner, we had an interesting conversation with Simon. He spoke Spanish, but you could tell Quechua was his first language. He was very interested in the United States. It kind of seemed like he had never met anyone from here before. He even asked if he could get a job as a janitor or on a farm or anything. It was surprising because he had just told us that he and his family had never been anywhere but Puno, which is the main shore where the supplies are, and his own island. When I asked what they liked to do in their free time, his answer was that they didn't really have much free time. There, they grow their own food. I guess it takes up most of their time. Another interesting thing was that he said they only eat meat 2 or 3 times a year. There aren't many fish left in the lake and they don't have livestock like cattle because they're expensive to feed. They just eat meat on special occasions.

After dinner, Candelaria came into my room and put some of her clothes on me. There was some kind of party included in the tour. We walked about 10 minutes up to this one-room building that had a tiny platform/stage on one end of the room. The rest was an open floor. A band came up and played and we danced with the families and other people on the tour for a little while. After the "party" and staring at the Milky Way for a little while, I called it a night.

Their kitchen. That's Simon to my left, his daughter to the right, and Candelaria at the little oven in the back.

Thanks, Candelaria.

Our (French or Swiss?) friends to the left (William and Amily if I remember right), Jack, me, and Bryan the Canadian.

On Monday, my friend, a Canadian we met, and I got up early for the sunrise. We walked down to the shore and hung out for a little while. It was pretty cloudy, but still worth it. We had breakfast with the family (we only got slightly lost on the way back to their house) and then by 8 we had to say our goodbyes and get back on our boat. Our next destination was Taquile Island. I fell asleep on the ride, but I think it was pretty short, maybe between 30 and 60 minutes.

Pancakes for breakfast.

Yeah, I know. It was an accident. Anyway, we had a lot of mint tea here.

Candelaria and Simon

Last time seeing Simon :( sweet guy

From Taquile island, you could see the shore of Bolivia in the distance. We walked up to the main square of the city, then to this lookout point on the other side of the island. We hung out with our group in this area for a while, then walked 45 minutes to the other side of the island for lunch, the got back on the boat to Puno for another 3 hour ride. I spent the majority of the ride back on the top of the boat. Most people were sleeping so it was nice having the top to ourselves.

So. Many. Arches.

Bolivia in the distance.

I got so excited every time I saw a soccer field in Peru.

Hola. Shoutout to Jess for the Notre Dame swag. Would've frozen without that jacket.

That's Amantani Island to the right.

We had about 5 hours in Puno until our bus ride back to Cusco, so we walked around a bit and got some food (had some really good pizza). This whole trip was so perfect you know something had to go wrong. As we were boarding the bus back to Cusco, the guy who checked our tickets wouldn't let Jack on because the name on his ticket didn't exactly match his passport. He had to go back and buy another ticket. They made a much bigger fuss about it than it was due, but in the end he was able to get some of his money back.