Home » Peru » Life on the Reeds; and on the Rocks!

Catching my head as it suddenly dropped from exhaustion, I continued counting down the minutes until the arrival of my night bus to the lakeside town of Puno. Before leaving Cusco, I had set up a two day excursion on Lake Titicaca; where I would visit three of the islands and stay over night with a local family. Everything was sort of running on schedule to get me there in time to make my 8am boat departure. The night had kicked off to a rough start when the bus company had double booked nearly 20 seats and attempted to pull away with angry customers running beside and in front of the vehicle. Lucky for me, I had arrived really early and insured my spot. The rest of the night went rather smoothly; well except for the bitter cold that filled the cabin and had turned the condensation on the windows to ice. Then as morning neared (5am), the bus suddenly came to a halt (only 10km outside of Puno). We soon discovered that the road between us and the town had been completely blocked off by angry civilians who were holding a demonstration.

Life on the Reeds; and on the Rocks!

Jeremy Curl
2006-08-28 12:03:07

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used to construct the boats, huts, chairs, crafts, and even eaten (I can't say they tasted that good). We spent the next couple of hours riding on reed boats and exploring the islands. Next, the group headed to the island of Amantaní, which was a three hour boat ride (like a snail) toward the center of the lake. Arriving to the island, the group was paired up into couples and introduced to their host family. Being that I was the only solo traveler, I bunked up with two Danish girls (Maria and Sika) - blasted! How is it I always get stuck with a couple of foreign chicas; life is hard I tell you. Our time on the island of Amantaní was a great way to experience the culture. We ate three meals with our family and slept in a small little room at their house. These island folk were so cute and tiny. The doorways of their houses came up to my chest and my head touched the ceiling of our room. The family consisted of Maria (the mother), Martin (the father), and their two little daughters (Noelia- 2 and Vicki-4). They all went out of their way to make us feel at home and Noelia (a doll) was stuck to our side at all times. That afternoon, the entire group hiked to the uppermost point of the island and watched a spectacular sunset that seemed to last forever. Following our climb down and dinner with the family, the group was dressed up in the traditional clothing of the locals and attended a festive dance at the town center. Well, due to the fact that I had had no sleep the night prior and I was suffering from severe stomach pains, I passed straight out after dinner and missed the whole thing. Although, my roomies skipped out also; so I didn't feel so bad. The next morning after breakfast and saying farewell to our family, we all pushed off and motored over to the neighboring island of Taquile. The time here was nice, but we were all ready to get back to the mainland to watch France and Portugal play in the Semi-finals. Our tour guide was quite the bore and we were ...