It is quite very surprising to read my tiny travel book where I write all the topics, though not in detail, about my travels. But some times, mostly when I write my posts more than one year after the my adventures, some details would be handy… Oh well.., apparently I had to take a shower in the dark right before going to the port because the electricity went off. Sorry, I just have a glimpse about what happened, I remember that I had to take the shower with the door widely open to get some light. Though, the plan for the day was to visit the famous Uros Islands, so a shower in the dark was not a bother for the day that was up to come!
Just after the breakfast, we got inside a mini-bus and we did a “tour” through Puno city to collect some more passengers for the lake-tour. Getting inside the “fast boat”, according to the flyer, but in reality the boat was quite slow. Well, it was a very international tour as well, people from many nationalities and I even managed to speak a little of portuguese with a brazilian couple.
Our first stop was at the Uros Islands, the Lake Titicaca‘s floating islands. The main purpose of these islands was defensive, it was “easy” to just move in case of danger like invaders (Incas, and so on). And apparently, the people living there are quite shy and afraid of strangers, we met a few that explained us how they support the islands, how they get from the islands all they need. Bedding, food, agriculture, housing, boats, and “islands”.
It is quite interesting actually, those islands are quite “green” and recyclable, almost all they use there is made by the reeds they harvest from the lake. We even ate some of those reeds, what they also call as the bananas of the lake.
After the introductory explanation, we were presented by a tour on one of those boats made of reeds, just for the fun. The kids were really cool, very relaxed and totally into playing with the tourists like us, afterwards I heard that most probably those kids and adults weren’t inhabitants of Uros Islands, but instead, most probably people from the Puno.
As I explained before, the inhabitants of Uros Islands are quite shy and very reserved regarding strangers, which makes sense to get other people to show the “invaders” a bit of what the Islands are. Better that, than disturbing those that actually live there, I wouldn’t feel comfortable either if some stranger came to my house just to see how I live.
Second Island, I believe it was Taquile Island (my notes aren’t that precise…), according to what I read on Wikipedia it is most probable that this was the Island since all the main characteristics on this island match with what we saw and heard.
One detail that I remember, is that I’ve been explicitly told that we should not take photos to the natives because they believe it takes part of their soul, unless they give us their permission. Well, what happens when you ask? They ask for money… Guess even the soul has its price after all. We had lunch there, a walk through part of the island and don’t forget the high altitude, even few steps seemed harder than normal.
Going back to Puno, the very long boat trip on the not so fast boat. It was nice though, we were also quite tired that day and the view was astonishing!
Back in Puno, we went to the hostel and we booked our trip to Arequipa for the next day, and then dinner! Again, another romantic dinner with Ramón, this time with a candle! Tajana was still feeling sick, and at night after a tiring day, it was expected that her organism asked for some rest. We went back to the hotel again quite soon, at 8pm… I started to believe that this was not jet lag, but just aging…
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