Hobbiton

We´re back from Lake Titicaca (yes, the 12 year old in me giggles everytime I say that) and we´re ready to blog again.

We spent the last three days on various islands on the lake and it was quite a bizzare experience. The first stop was the floating islands. These man-made islands are made up of millions of reeds which also make their homes and boats. They are quite tasty as well.

Next up was the island of Amantani where we had our first homestay. As soon as we got off the boat we were handed over to our new family. We stayed in a mud house with no running water, but pantloads of charm. Our new mom cooked in a wood burning stove and our little brother, Nilton, was busy playing with his hoop and stick.

We climbed to the top of the island and explored some Inca ruins and got a great view of Bolivia which is across the lake.

That night we were treated to a strange surprise. We were told that we had to attend a Fiesta, but we had no idea what we were in for. Our Mom dressed us up in traditional clothing and we were taken to a room where we were joined by a dozen or so other confused tourists. We sat along the wall and were prodded into dancing with the locals along to some pretty catchy folk music. Note, we did not sign up with a tour group, but felt like we were on a local tour because we were herded from place to place.

The next day we went to a different island called Taquile. This is where the tour group feeling crashed and burned. We were on our own with a local family who appeared to be afraid of us. In fairness, we hadn´t showered for over a day.

This new island was full of tourists but we managed to escape and find more ruins to explore until they all flooded back to their boats and left us with our timid family.

We enjoyed learning about the people who live on these islands. DawnO mentioned that it was like we went back in time. Most of these people have never seen a vehicle before and electricity is quite a luxury. Their livlihoods are based on sheep herding and tiered farming. Though everything was very simple, we were treated to some nice meals and friendly people.

This morning (day 3 without a shower) we headed back to Puno on the mainland. We´ve since freshened up and are going to take another night bus to Cusco. DawnO hooked us up with VIP tickets so we´ll be sleeping in style. We are getting ready for the Inca trail and finally Ecuador. It´s hard to believe that in one month and one day, we´ll be back in Canada.