So we are now in a really nice comfortable boat, headed to see the floating islands on Lake Titicaca - the highest lake in the world. It is a huge lake that borders both Bolivia and Peru, but we are on the Peru side. We enjoy the 3 hour ride until the first island. By now, Bernie has explained to me that it's not an "iceland" and also the difference between a normal island such as Australia and a floating island.
We get there and it's quite fascinating, the island is made up of reeds that grow in the water and the inhabitants of this little place have taken these reeds to create an island in the middle of the lake. There are ten houses on the island and they are so neatly built, once again with the reeds. What was most unbelievable is that I took a quick peep into a house and even saw a small tv! The people on this island don't have passports so they have to anchor the island to make sure it doesn't float into the Bolivian side. The main guy calls himself the president, which I thought was quite funny, but the island is almost like its own country with their specific culture.
We got back in the boat to head to the next island 3 hours away, where we would stay the night with a local family. When we got there, we were greeted by island locals wearing traditional costumes and basically we just stared at each other for 5 minutes.
Awks.
We were then divided into groups, Bernie and me with two girls from Lima and introduced to the local lady who's house we were going to stay in. She then began to lead us to her house which was uphill, once again. High altitude, once again. I threw a fit which poor Berns could only watch but I finally made it to the house, resolving never ever to walk up a mountain again in my life.
We got to the house and our host Nancy had actually made rooms with beds for us, so not as rustical and "original" as we had expected, but I wasn't complaining that we had sheets! We then had a meal of quinoa soup, boiled rice, boiled potatoes and fried cheese. Till date, this is the weirdest meal I have ever eaten. However we did drink 'munyo' tea which was great. We'd been drinking lots of coca tea and chewing the leaves but it doesn't actually do anything other than make you pee! It's supposed to be good for altitude sickness. Coca is the plant from which you extract cocaine.
We were then given the option to climb the mountain to see the local temple, which I flatly refused to do. Most people didn't actually go because it looked like rain. And twenty minutes after the group left, it began to pour. Heavy heavy rain coming down on our tin roof gave me the best 4 hour nap of my life. Though I was stroppy all morning about not wanting to be on this tour, I did admit it was worth it for the nap.
We had dinner, same as lunch and then got dressed up in traditional outfits to go to the siesta. There were about 60 tourists on the island, and all the locals. The dancing mostly consisted on holding hands and running around in circles slow and then really fast. They were selling beer, but Bernie didn't want to go to the bano in the middle of the night so we watched for a bit.
Once again we noticed the locals looked bored out of their minds and rarely smiled.
Awks.
As early as we could, which was in an hour we decided to leave and go back to sleep. Next morning after breakfast, we headed to the third and last island. Once again uphill, but the day was gorgeous, sunny blue skies, the view of the lake and all the different blues was so spectacular that even I couldn't be whiney for too long.
Bernie and I didn't change money at Puno so we had a few coins and bought some water and Oreos. We declined lunch as we knew we couldn't have any more quinoa soup or boiled potatoes, and we relaxed at the jetty enjoying the sun and chatting with all the other tourists. The most interesting lady we met there was a German grandmother who lives in Tahiti and has taken her pension to travel around the world, she suspects for about 3 years! When I'm old, I hope I still have some cool left in me.
We got back on the boat and headed back to the Puno port 3 hours away. It was a lovely ride, especially knowing we were heading to a hotel. Honestly, I would not recommend this tour, maybe just a day trip to visit the islands, staying for the night wasn't exactly the funnest experience, but an experience nonetheless. In Peru and Bolivia, it's hard to do or see anything without being a part of a tour so you need to research and pick an agency wisely.
At Puno, we checked into San Antonio Suites which was really nice. My nose is red, I realise I'm sunburnt because of the high altitude and super strong sun. The best thing we've discovered in Peru is that they have a channel AXN (different from India AXN) that is in English and plays Criminal Minds 24/7! We were both completely exhausted from nonstop travel, so I went to a pizzeria called Adina pizzeria (highly recommended) and got some pizzas for the room. It was heaven!
Awks=awkward
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