Blog entry #50...Lake Titicaca!

It’s official. After 5.5 months of seriously enjoying and passionately writing in this blog, I am over it. I am so sick of telling you people about my experiences here :)

Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that my mom told me that she has been printing out my entire blog for when I get home and it is honestly as long as Pride and Prejudice, I would probably have quit weeks ago. I must say that keeping this blog will probably be the best souvenir I could ever hope for...

But I NEED to tell you (and I want to have this story for later) about my last weekend adventure...Lake Titicaca!

Don’t worry. If you are silently chuckling about the name Lake Titicaca, you are not alone.

So last Friday (yes...it has been a week), 6 of us boarded a private mini-bus to Puno, an equally unfortunately named town on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The ride was about 5 hours long but don’t worry, I came with lots of bus “get-to-know” you games and the ride was really great. Not to mention the fact that for 5 hours in a row, we ate Pringles, Combos, Cap’n Crunch and Doritos. Yum.

We rolled up to Puno at about 8ish and peered down a very dark, sketchy alley. Our bus driver informed us this was our hostel. Hmm. Interesting. So we kind of tiptoed down the alleyway and arrived at quite possibly one of the strangest hostels ever. Not the worst. Not the best. Just overall, really strange.

It can pretty much be summed up as I think that someone had this idea that they were going to build some high-class hotel in Puno and then either a) ran out of budget or b) realized that “hey, I live in Puno...no one here is high-class” and changed their plans.

The lobby leaves a bit to be desired but has a big aquarium with fish behind the front desk (although only half filled with water and with some pretty sad looking swimmers inside). It is also somehow decorated with a weird Chinese restaurant flair...

Then we go into our rooms. Again...not the best, but not horrible. Big room...tiny beds. Nice comforters...horrible pillows. And perhaps the weirdest bit of irony...the bathroom.

So the bathroom was also huge but it had definitely seen better days. Half the tiles on the floor were gone. No shower curtain. No toilet paper. Weirdest part: we had a bidet (prounounced: badai). For those of you out there who have no idea what a bidet is, it is basically an upside down sink that kind of looks like a toilet that you use to “clean-up” down “there” after using the toilet (for those of you who still don’t understand, that is what Google is for).

Usually these bidets are found in millionaires’ homes. I have seen one before in my life and it was when I stayed in Thailand at what is considered to be the nicest hotel in the world. So needless to say, to see this thing in the middle of my crumbling apart bathroom was more than hilarious.
So after we got some good pictures, we headed to dinner (we figured that we should probably eat something that wasn’t from a foil bag before bed). We went to a great little Peruvian restaurant and had what I have decided is my favorite Peruvian dish: Lomo Saltado (beef, french fries, onions, tomatoes, rice...pretty much every delicious food all mixed up...yum)

We went back to the hotel and although I now really could not tell you why, we just laughed and laughed for about 2 hours. Just one of those silly nights...Puno: the land of weird hostels and weird moods. Good times.

So the next morning bright and early, we were off to the main event: Lake Titicaca. We boarded a boat for our 3 hour journey.
Our first impression of the lake was amazing...we saw this crazy rainbow that encircled the sun. Not sure if you can tell what is going on in this picture but I tried..
So about half way through the ride, we made our first stop. So in Lake Titicaca, there are a whole bunch of what are called “floating islands.” (apparently these are super famous and pretty much the second most popular thing to visit in Peru after Macchu Picchu but I knew nothing about them).

They are MAN-MADE islands. As in people actually collect enough reeds to stack up and build islands that just float in the lake. It is amazing. Again, pictures are my only hope here.
We learned all about the islands: how they are built, how to cure hangovers (eating the weird reed you see me eating below...), how they settle disputes (basically, physically cut the island apart) and even got to take a boat ride from one floating island to another in a reed boat. We got to go inside of a hut and it turns out, there was a little tv...nuts...
It was a little “touristy” but guess what? I’m a tourist. So I loved it.

After visiting two of these islands, we were off to our island for the night called Amantani. It wasn’t a floating island but it was all indigenous people and we were able to spend the night in the home of an indigenous family.

So we got off the boat and were basically assigned to a family to live with (it was kind of like getting assigned to a cabin at camp...). We got our family and started walking up to our house. I can’t remember the exact altitude of this place but I think we were approaching the 5000 meter mark (again, if you need to know, please google...) So after about 5 minutes of walking, I definitely needed to pull over and sit down. But I popped a magical red and white altitude pill (discovered in Colca Canyon) and it was “no problema” from that moment on.
We got into our house and like most indigenous people down here, we are pretty much giants...and we felt that way in the house. It was like Goldilocks in Baby Bear’s bedroom. Not sure this picture completely does it justice but it was pretty funny.
After a nice lunch. Ok...”nice” as in everything these people probably had just boiled...boiled egg, boiled potato, boiled carrot, boiled onion...you get the picture but just in case... and then it was off to hike. I was almost scared away from this after my first 5 minutes on the island but was convinced and am so glad I was!
We hiked up for about 1.5 hours or so (with a few stops to hear from our guide about the history of the place...more on that in a bit) and made it up to the top just in time for an amazing sunset and take some really fun photos. I have quite a few pictures of the way up...pretty much just because I needed an excuse to stop and breathe many times...

And the way down was great. Completely dark and...well...downhill!

We got back home for another “nice” dinner and then it was time to get ready. So our host family (after some convincing) brought all of us indigenous clothing to wear to the big fiesta! Can I just say, these indigenous people could learn a thing or two about picking more flattering outfits?? These things were not only unflattering and made you look pregnant, but the belts were so tight, we could barely breathe!

But, in the name of our indigenous discoteca, we got decked out and danced the night away. It was amazing...

Definitely one of those moments where I literally had to ask myself if I was really doing this and having this experience but it’s a good thing I have the photos to prove it.
After a few hours of dancing, it was back to Baby Bear’s bedroom for a good night’s sleep (where I was told I talked in my sleep all night long...big surprise)

Sunday was basically a travel day with a few highlights. Woke up, got on a boat to another island called Tequille. Now I know I said I’d talk about our guide’s “lectures” so here we go.

This guy was about as interesting as watching an elementary school band concert. Seriously painful. I honestly could not understand his Spanish or his English. But at least it was long. No joke...guy went on for years. About what? No idea. Google it people.
We did manage to get a pretty awesome fresh trout lunch out of the deal which was by far the highlight.
Oh and of course went on another uphill hike to the top of the island (why do they not build things on the bottom??) But the views were incredible...
After stumbling our way back down, it was back on the boat for about 3 hours (where we pretty much were in a typhoon...ok...not true...but it was rough and the captain honestly looked terrified) and then back to the bus for another 5 hours.

Got back to Arequipa late Sunday night and crashed to face my smiling students’ faces early Monday morning.

Again...another awesome weekend. I just can hardly believe that I only have 2 of these left...

xoxo,
Debra