Friday, December 9, 2011

Puno/Arequipa (Día 2)

So although I went to bed fairly early, the night at the "hostel with character" wasn't the best sleep of my life.  It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, but was still cold.  I woke up with a stuffy nose, but luckily that went away fairly quickly as the morning went on.  Also, the mattress was extremely uncomfortable so I woke up several times, but I survived and so did the other three. :)  We woke up around 7:15 to get ready to leave and our tour guide picked us up soon after.  We went to the Puno port and boarded the boat that would be our form of transportation for the next two days on Lake Titicaca.  When we got on the boat, there was a man that was playing a guitar, playing a panpipe, and singing.  Now, that's what I call talent.  That was actually a pretty frequent thing during the week.  People in both Puno and Arequipa played the guitar and the panpipe at the same time.

Our first stop were the las Islas de los Uros (Uros Islands: mostly commonly known to tourists as the Floating Islands).  They are known as the Floating Islands because that is exactly what they are:  man-made islands that float (obviously, they float. haha).
One of the floating islands that we visited
When we got to the first island, we sat down and learned about the Uros tribe and the islands.  The Uros actually came from Bolivia and when they arrived to the Puno region they actually escaped from the Incans because they were living on reed boats and then later on they escaped from the Europeans as well because they were living on the islands that they had built.  The islands actually consist of the blocks of reed roots, stacks and stacks of reeds, and hay.  The blocks are all tied together and then the whole island is anchored down.  The President of the island told a joke that if the island wasn't anchored they would float to Bolivia and they wouldn't have a passport to get back. :)  Anyway, each island takes about 1 year to make and they last 30 years (with maintenance) and I think there are around 50 of them.  Every island has a President and all the inhabitants on the island are related.  They are actually really impressive.  All the websites say that they feel like waterbeds when you walk on them, but I own a waterbed and I don't think they feel like that.  They are sturdier than you think, however there were a few soft spots.  Anyway, we got dressed in the traditional dress while there, too, which was cool.  Lastly, we learned a new Aimara word "Wailiki," (I don't know the spelling) which means "Estoy bien" or "I'm good."  After the first island we stopped at a second island that is more touristy.  It had a restaurant and small store.  We didn't spend too much time there, but we spent enough time there that I was able to get the Lake Titicaca stamp on my passport because it's a World Heritage Site or something like that. :)

Once we were done at the Floating Islands we boarded the boat to head to Isla Amantani.  It was a three hour ride to Amantani.  I laid out on the deck of the boat for a little bit, but the wind made it really cold so my sunbathing didn't last long so I went inside and Tonisha and I worked on our presentation for a little bit.

When we arrived to Amantani, we got paired up with a family who would act as our hosts for the night.  Sheila and I got Benigno's family and they were great!  We walked to the house and I can't speak for Sheila (but I'm going to anyway), we were sooo impressed by our accommodations.  Our room was really nice and after some conversation with the family, we found out that it's actually their job to have tourists stay in there homes.  I asked the father, César, if he liked having people there and he said, "Yes," which made me so happy.  I felt like an intruder and there are some companies that exploit the families on the island, so it made me feel good that they actually enjoyed it.  Their house was actually in the process of being fixed up so that they could have guests stay.  It seemed that they had done the "important" rooms first: our bedroom, the bathroom.  Their personal rooms were definitely not first on the list and they were in the process of making a dining room.

Anyway, we laid down for a small nap before lunch, which by the way, lunch was delicious!!  They eat a lot of potatoes, cheese, and grain on the island, which is what our meals consisted of, which is fine by me.  For lunch we had quinoa soup, 2 or 3 types of potatoes (you know, since there are over 3,000 varieties), and cheese. :)  I loved the quinoa soup!  It was so good!  And the potatoes were pretty good, too.  However, I'm not a huge fan of cheese so I didn't like that very much.  Oh, and of course coca tea also.  Anyway, as we were eating, César, the father of the family came in and we talked with him for awhile.  He kept asking how to say things in English because they have a lot of people that come who don't speak Spanish so he wants to learn English so that he can communicate with the guests.  It's really too bad.  I think he was extremely happy that we spoke Spanish because he just wanted to talk with us.  I wish Americans had the drive to learn another language like other people in the world.  Anyway, we learned more about the family, too.  César is the son of Benigno (Benigno lived in a house that was a few doors down).  César was married to Fidela who did all the cooking and she was very sweet and they had a 1 1/2 year old son, Johel, who was so adorable.


A quick glance at the Plaza

After lunch and chatting, we headed to a nearby library where we were able to play with some kids for a short while.  They were all so adorable, I'm pretty sure all of us wanted to bring home a little Andean child after the week was over.  We read with them and colored, which was fun, but it didn't last long.  Pretty soon after, we headed to the Plaza of the community (I guess I should say that there are 10 communities on Amantani and 8 ports).  Anyway, while at the Plaza we saw the church and sat down and learned more about Amantani.  For example, the Plaza is only a plaza and not a Plaza de Armas because there is no police force on the island, but each community has a president and fun fact:  they raise their hands to vote for him (yes, only men can be presidents).  Also, we asked about voting for Peru's president because here in Peru it is obligatory and our guide, Herberd, said that an official comes to the island for those elections.  More facts about Amantani:  When someone has a fiancé, they have to live together for three years and after three years, they get married or separate if it doesn't work out.  However, if in that three years, they have a baby, they have to get married.  There's no divorce on the island.  Women wear the traditional dress, but men do not because of city influences (Men leave to work in the cities and come back with the non-traditional dress).  Men sew the women's clothes:  the better they are sewn, the better the husband is.  The wedding is a three day ceremony.  Okay, I think that's it for island fun facts for now.

Anyway, after our Amantani lesson in the Plaza, we started our hike up the island.  There are two peaks on Amantani, Pachatata and Pachamama.  We went to the higher of the two, Pachatata, which is the highest peak on Lake Titicaca, however, unfortunately, the Pachatata side is bad luck. :/  At some point in the year there is a competition between the two sides and if Pachatata wins that means bad luck for the year to come.  Anyway, we went up there for the sunset, which was gorgeous and then apparently you're supposed to walk around the peak three times counterclockwise and make a wish, so we of course listened to our guide and did that too. :)  If I were ever a tour guide, I would make up stuff like this (but more embarrassing) just to see if the tourists would do it.  For example, snipe hunting.  If I were ever to give a tour of my hometown, I would take the tourists snipe hunting. :)  Anyway, here are some fun photos from the peak!!
Lago Titicaca
Tonisha, Mark, Sheila, and I on what Tonisha calls
"the top of the navegable lake world."
Sunset
Rocking my chullo and Carthage sweatshirt
on top of Pachatata
Anyway, after watching the sunset, we all went back down the mountain and Sheila and I met our host-grandpa, Benigno in the Plaza.  We headed back to the house and had dinner.  This time we had sopa de cereal (Cereal soup..tasted like the quinoa soup.yum), segunda de verduras con arroz (this concoction tasted like chicken pot pie, yum!) and mata de muña, which is a mint-y tea.  We spent time after dinner again talking with our host family for the night, which was really fun.  Once dinner and the chatting was over, Sheila and I got all dressed up in traditional dress and went to a party at the community center. :)  It was really fun!  There was a live band with guitars and panpipes and we danced and had a blast!  And even after all the partying, we were still in bed by 10:30 p.m.!!!  Also, I should point out, that the stars were beautiful at night on the island; however, they really freaked me out when I first saw them.  If you know me, then you know that I love looking at the stars and I could probably point out more constellations then the average 20 year year old, so automatically, I found Orion's belt and you want to know what I noticed right after that?!  It was UPSIDE-DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was the coolest thing ever!  Everything was upside-down!  I mean I know that they would be upside-down because I am in a different hemisphere, but I haven't seen the stars in awhile and it just caught me off guard!  I was in awe by it!  Ask Sheila, I couldn't get over it, still can't! :)
Sheila and I with our host-grandpa, Benigno
Dancing with two little kids!
So, I've come to the realization that I'm not going to finish these Puno/Arequipa blogs until I get back to the states.  I'm going to switch to focusing on my end of the semester blogs and then resume these when I have more time!  I'm really sorry for making you wait, but I promise my end of the semester blogs will be interesting as well!!!!!!  Buenas noches!

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