I apologise in advance for the lack of apostrophes in this entry but the keyboard won{t do them.
The last few days has been spent on and around Lake Titcaca. First, on the Peru side, we visited the Floating Islands and then 2 other islands - Isla Armantani and Isla Taquile. This time, we were determined not to get on a tour so we said "no" to the thousand or so people in Puno trying to sell us a tour and in the morning, made our way to the pier to buy our boat ticket. We did this, got on the boat and found we were on a tour. How the hell did that happen??!! Im not sure that we were meant to be on the tour but the guide assumed we were and we got the benefits. As it turned out, it was really good so no real complaints.
The Islas Flotantes were great. The people living on these islands have made the islands from buoyant reeds. They really are amazing. Someone has donated them a few solar power panels so its quite funny to see they have a couple of tvs and a telephone. Doesnt seem to go really. Dylan Says: Actually the reeds sit on top of another substance that we couldnt identify, but looks a bit like compost. The reeds are also a useful snack if you are caught short, and I had some, really nice - perhaps that why I got so Ill. Back to Kat: The people have to regularly replenish the surface of their islands with fresh reeds and the islands move around a bit, given they are floating...
Then we went onto Isla Armantani. The people living on this island have pretty basic and traditional lives (or so it appears). There are a couple of restaurants popping up but so far it seems fairly unaffected by tourism.
Families on the island volunteer to provide a bed and food to tourists who go there to get a little extra money. When the boat arrives the women of the houses meet you and you just go with one of them to their house. Our host was Valentina. She didnt say much but seemed nice. I tried some basic conversation but the language barrier put an end to that after a few minutes!
We met the guide later and he took us on a bit of a walk around explaining the background to various ruins on the island (still not sure we were meant to be with his group, but he never said anything).
Later after dinner, any families that have guests dress the guests up in traditional clothes and take them to a dance in the main hall. This wasnt a tour thing, they do it all the time with whatever tourists are around.
So after dinner, Valentina appeared with garments which she put on us. A big skirt with trousers underneath and hiking boots is always a good look.
On we went to the dance. From a distance, the drum beat made it sound like we were going to a rave but we agreed that was highly unlikely. Dylan says: Upon arrival to the town hall (a empty cement room lit from one end with a gas light) I bought one of about six beers that were on sale, and hoped that this would all be over quickly. A stranger experience I have yet to live through. Before my backside touched the seat I was dragged by a small peruvian woman into an absurd manical spiral. Within about five minutes my throat was so sore I thought I would die, yet the little drummer boy WOULD NOT STOP. I was in dire need of life support when finally our band abruptly decided they had had enough of the gabba anthem. There was a long pause, the only noise being the tourists gasping for the will to live, when out of nowhere, the song started AGAIN. The ritual humiliation of tourists continued. The hardest thing was finding a way out of there....
Kat continues: The next morning we met up with the guide at the boat, said Adios to Valentina and went to Isla Taquile. This island is a little more commercialised but nevertheless a lovely place. On this island the men wear these wee-willy-winkie (sp?) type hats. The red and white hats mean the man is single and the red ones mean he is married. The way the single men wear their hats denotes their status - single and looking, single but not looking, unmarried but in love. On this island nothing is secret.
Then it was back to Puno and the next morning we got on a bus to Bolivia. Last thoughts on Peru - amazing and varied landscape, millions of dusty dogs, very complicated procedures (eg, having to go to 3 different staff members just to buy tissues in a chemist - one to get the tissues, one to take your money, the other to give you the tissues), no one ever has any change (not even the post office), terrible pollution caused by badly maintained vehicles, fantastic ruins. I dont mean that to sound negative, they are just observations. We had a fabulous time in Peru and would recommend the trip to everyone.
Our fist stop in Bolivia was Copacobana, on the shore of Lake Titicaca. We cleared the border without having to bribe anyone which was a bonus. Copacobana is a laid back seaside type place. We wandered into a hostal to get a room (lets just make it clear that it was Dylans choice (Dylan says: through desperation) and on first appearance it appeared to be really nice. On closer inspection, it was filthy. I dont think the bathroom had been cleaned in about 10 years and Dylan found grit under his pillow. Nice.
Anyway, we had a walk around and went into the huge cathedral for a look. On the side of the cathedral there is a cave-like chapel completely covered in candle wax, with graffiti carved into the wax on the walls. There are a number of tables with burning candles that people put there. Quite spooky.
Outside the cathedral at 10am and 2pm each day, there is the Benediciones de Movilidades (blessing of cars) where anyone who wants their car blessed by a priest comes along with their pride and joy decorated in flowers. When everyone is lined up outside, a man in a monk-like robe comes out and starts splashing holy water all over the outside and INSIDE the cars and he drowns the cars occupants with it too. Im not sure what this says about Bolivias roads, or if it is the state of the cars or the drivers that is questionable.
The next morning rather than taking a boat from Copacobana to the Isla del Sol, we set off on a 4 hour trek from Copacobana to a place called Yampupata (where you can jump on a boat to the island). It was a really pretty walk although a little more of the uphill stuff than we expected!
We arrived at Isla del Sol (where the Incas believe the sun was born) at the bottom of some Inca steps up to the village of Yumani. After a steep climb we dropped ourselves and our bags at a lovely hostel called Casa de Don Ricardo. It is apparently run by an Argentine activist but we didnt see any signs of activism (whatever that means). Dylan says: I saw a picture postcard of a man putting his middle finger up and calling me a basta, which was quite active.
Kat says: We were going to go for a wander around that part of the island but Dylan came down with flu like symptoms and was not well at all, so we stayed put and just watched the sun go down over Lake Titicaca - gorgeous. I took the opportunity of having an advertised hot shower (which was of course only luke warm). The "frosted glass" on the window didnt hide much which is obviously something that has become known to the distant neighbour of Don Ricardo who Dylan thinks was looking at me through some sort of telescope. He is pretty sure of this as the man waved at him. I thought this was hysterical. Dylan didnt think it was quite so funny.
The neighbours (not the pervert side) cooked us a yummy dinner and then we went to our room and just relaxed (well, I relaxed. Dylan shivered and groaned a lot).
The next morning we got a boat back to Copacobana and then a bus to La Paz. Dylan still wasnt very well so he wasnt having fun (Nurofen just wasnt quite enough). We finally made it to a hostal last night where there are no windows in the bathroom and the beds are fairly comfy. We are going to stay put for a bit until Dylan recovers. He says he feels a bit better today so hopefully tomorrow he will be nearly 100%. Poor thing, it really hasnt been nice for him. So after weve posted this entry its back to bed for Mr Penhale and I will probably go for a wander around the sights of La Paz.
Kat & Dylan
