As I mentioned in the last email we were in Puno. There isnt a whole lot to do in Puno, our last Peruvian stopover before Bolivia, and the same can be said for the likes of small Bolivian towns like Potosi and Uyuni. Puno is basically a stopover before heading to other places across South America and only has one main street of note that links up two squares or plazas, which is a common theme in Peruvian towns. That street has a few pubs and small night clubs and lots of restaurants of which only a select few are safe bets for decent food.
Our main reason for going to Puno was to go on an overnight home stay excursion to Lake Titicaca. The lake itself is huge and when you’re on it and it’s similar to the Mediterranean in the vastness of the water and the dotted islands. The lake itself is 58000 square KM and has a percentage of salt and sulphur which sets it aside from normal freshwater lakes. You can feel the altitude too as its higher in altitude than Puno at 3811m.
Our first stop on the lake was on manmade floating reed islands of the Uros. The indigenous people on the islands, (population 500 approx) made the islands from dry reeds stuck into dried blocks of shoreline earth and the whole thing is anchored simply by long branches and polls. All the islands are floating and the ground is dry but soft underneath your feet; a funny sensation. On the island we stopped on, there were 12 houses or huts made from dry reeds. The huts were tiny one room structures that housed the whole family. We went on a short boat trip around the islands on, you guessed it, a reed boat. It was cool to see how they lived but you get the impression that its not a culture that will last as its become heavily dependent on tourism and a lot of the younger people are leaving the island way of life for a life in the main land.
We then went to the island of Amantani where we were greeted by our "mamas" who we would be staying with that night. Regretfully I have to admit that the overnight stay was not the most enjoyable experience although it wasnt exactly awful either. What made things very awkward was the language barrier and the heart sinking conditions and way of life of the people. Whereas the families seem very happy, its obvious that they have nothing and face hardships of not having proper irrigation for farming, running water or electricity. The food we got was grand considering what the family were cooking with; a man made clay type of open fire range or oven with pots resting on open holes in the clay oven. The only room we saw in the house was a cooking area in the corner flowing into a small eating area with a table and two chairs. I have seen some houses at home with no floors but this was worse. The only seating area was a log with a blanket on it. The food was fine and consisted of a soup or stew with vegetables and potatoes, and fried cheese and tomato for the main dinner. Later that evening we had the same thing with rice. To be honest I had lost my appetite; not out of any sort of dislike of the food but more out of the change of scenery and bad form after seeing how they lived. Where we were staying was at least a 25 minute walk to the lake and you knew that they were up at 4:30am to go down to the lake, bring up water and boil it for our breakfast and meals.
That evening we disposed of another Tucan tour group in a game of soccer on their local school yard pitch, before beating the locals in our second game. Steely determination won it for us but playing at 4200m or so (as it was a bit of a climb to where we were staying) we were constantly catching our breath where as the locals were comfortable. You can see why Peru has such a great home record in soccer when you try and actually run around in altitude. That night, after candle lit dinner (out of necessity as our solar powered electricity went after 20 minutes) we dressed up in their local traditional attire and went to the local community center where a traditional band played and we danced with the locals and our "Mamas". The "Mama" myself and Stephanie stayed with was only 23 years old but she lived with her parents and her sister. It seemed that she was the only one that was educated and she was able to understand our basic Spanish and a couple of words of English. However bad the language barrier was, we were getting messages across with hand signals similar to a game of charades. The main language of the islands is Quechua which is more of an ancient Inca language but thankfully most can understand Spanish too.
In your heart you know those people are happy but it wasn a bitter sweet experience. I wish I knew how bad things were and instead of the few bits we brought to them we may have brought candles and more practical things for them. However they did seem grateful for the few kilos of rice and pasta we brought although we did feel silly giving coloring books and things for kids when there were none with our family but I think our Mama had nieces and nephews that she would give them to.
We left the island the following morning and went to one last island of Taquile. It was remarked that the island was quite like any Greek island with paved paths and clear blue waters all around. We ate lunch as our tour guide told us of the strange courting traditions which, without pulling any punches could be better described as rape or forced relationships in the western world. Strangely when a guy wants to choose a girl at a party and she says no, she is dragged up on the dance floor anyway and the relationship would be consummated that night whether she likes it or not. Often when it would get to that stage, the woman would submit and ironically actually be happy that someone would want to fight for her. That morning, the father of the male in the "relationship" (for use of a better term) would go to the other family to say that their daughter is now with his son. After that the new couple must live together for 3 years after which marriage, without the possibility of separation or divorce happens and they all live happily ever after. Strange and shocking culture but its been that way for them since the beginning of time and we are told that its the way relationships are expected to start. A quick note, there are no bachelors or bachelorettes on the island that would not have married by their middle age. Our tour guide told us the story and said he told the islander males, to their disbelief that if they tried that on the mainland they would get a hiding.
We left that island and headed back to normality in Puno before setting off the following morning for Bolivia and La Paz.
After a reasonably long journey from Puno to La Paz through a customs border crossing at Desaguardero, getting Bolivian money and visas, we finally got to La Paz which is up there with Cusco as our favorite stopovers so far. We are mostly staying in hostels and hotels here in Bolivia as they are so cheap. We were still at big altitudes of 3636m but you forgot that in La Paz.
Ironically La Paz does not seem like a city on a third world country as the facilities are good and there are a few good places to eat and drink. Bolivia is ridiculously cheap compared to Peru which itself is not all that expensive. Sometimes out here you can get caught in a tourist trap, eating and shopping in tourist spots with close to western prices but so far in Bolivia everything is cheap. Its one Euro to nine Bolivian dollars and if you wanted you could buy a hotdog and chips on the street for 4.50 Bolivianos which is dirt cheap.
Myself and Stephanie did a fair bit of walking in the city and the amount of markets was overwhelming. It must be the fact that the cost of renting is expensive but there are thousands of market stalls selling everything from hardware to clothes. There is nothing you couldn’t buy from a market in La Paz for a quarter of the price you would pay at home. Stephanie brought a lot of scarves and crazy pants in an area of the city called "The Witches Market" which as the name suggests contains a few stalls and shops dedicated to sort of mystic paraphernalia as well as dried Lama and Alpaca fetises which are used to ward off evil spirits. We didn’t take any pictures as we were told we could be met with hostility or asked for money from the witches or stall owners. But its clear that in South America there is a culture of polytheism where people can be Catholic, believe in Inca Gods and believe is this sort of occult and mysticisms all at once.
The nightlife in La Paz is very good so as well as eating out the nights we were there, we had a few sessions, one of which was a fancy dress and going away party for a guy called Quentin Fry who was only joining us for half the tour before heading back to Oz.
Our third day in La Paz was spent doing an optional excursion cycling down "Death Road", or the world’s most dangerous road in La Cumbre. It’s an excursion that was quite dangerous so not everyone in our group, including Stephanie and a few other girls, did the excursion. Essentially we cycled or free wheeled and braked down 73km of paths and dirt roads. The decent was 1300m and some of the cliff edges we cycled on would take your breath away they were so steep so we were well warned to "keep our eyes on the prize" and concentrate on the road in front of us. It was very enjoyable and I would rank it up there with Matchu Pitchu as one of the highlights so far. On route down the mountain you cycle under little waterfalls, past villages and through jungle type terrain. Thankfully we all got through it ok but its worth noting that 18 cyclists have died on the since 1998 and many more were killed in vehicles.
Ill leave the blog there for now as in the last couple of days we have done a lot so its too much to fit here.
We are on our way back to Potisi now from Uyuni and the salt flats.
We have a few long days on the road coming up to get to Argentina.
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