Lake Titicaca

On the way to Llachón (October 13th) we started to notice how rural the area is. Many cows, sheep, bikes and some motorbikes with a person holding a sheep. When we got dropped off in Llachón it was almost deserted. Fortunately, we were able to find a hostel, which was very basic. No running water and only a standing toilet, but it was very tranquil. After lunch and a siesta we went on a walk with the owners daughter Lourdes along the lake and a bit into "town". Each region has it´s own traditional clothes. Here it´s a four pointed hat with 2 pompoms (only for females) and colorful long toques. Paulien didn´t have supper tonight because of stomach problems; maybe because of altitude sickness, since Lake Titicaca is around 3800 meters above sea level. The guy running the hostel gave Paulien a bowl to pee in, he suggested rubbing the pee on the belly to cure any stomach ailments. We had to be careful not to burst into laughter when that was suggested. We would often get muña tea here, which is supposed to help with digestive problems.
Next day we set off to Amantaní Island, the less touristy of the two nearby islands. It took 90 minutes in a small boat to get there. It was clear that it was not touristy anymore, since almost all shops were closed, including artisan shops and we only saw two gringos as we were leaving the island. It was actually hard to find a snack! We walked a lot around the island and also up both of the islands peaks Pacha Mama and Pacha Tata. On both peaks there are Inca ruins and excellent views. We first went to Inkatiana that is an inca throne carved out of stone on the shore. Then we started our way up the mountain, which was quite steep and we had to make our way up terraces to the top. Once we were at the top we found a tourist path that goes all around the island (it took over 3 years to build)! Also here we found that the people cultivate land even high up on the hills and walk their sheep almost to the top of the mountains, so far away from their houses.
The following day we took the same small boat (40 minutes) to one of the Los Uros islands. There are around 30 of these floating reed islands. We saw three, but visited only one. These ones are less touristy than the ones near Puno, but we still got a lot of attention and felt some pressure to buy some of their crafts. To us the crafts weren´t very impressive and all the families sold the same things. The island we visited was about 6 x 15 meters and 8 families lived there with around 14 school age kids. The children go to school somewhere else. The reeds are not only used to make the island (which is floating buy anchored), but it´s also used to make the houses, boats, some of the handicrafts and it´s used for food and as a substitute for toothbrush and toothpaste. Their food mainly consists of fish and different parts of the reed plants. The roots of the reed plants are actually not bad. Since it was cloudy, cold, windy and rainy we didn´t stay very long. We did, however, take a little boat trip on a more modern version of the reed boats (constructed with some nylon) to the reeds. Even though the weather was pretty bad it was still worth the trip to see how these people lived.
At 1pm we took a bus back to Juliaca. The first hour was the slowest bus we had ever taken in our lives. We couldn´t even catch up to a person riding a bike. Then suddenly he sped up, probably he was just going slow hoping to pick up more people. In Juliaca we took a motor taxi (tuktuk) to the bus terminal to Puno. There are a lot in South America and this was the first time we took one. Once in Puno Brian got sick and the next morning Paulien didn´t feel too good either. We stayed in bed most of the time and arranged everything through the hotel. We finally broke down and started taking antibiotic pills. When we looked on the internet we found out that what is eaten here a lot (bananas, rice and potatoes) are actually good against diarrhea. In the afternoon we felt better and took a tour to Sillustani. Sillustani is a hill containing many burial towers made by 4 different cultures from 2000 B.C. up till the time of the Incas. They are all different styles and generally built near the edge of the hill. On many burial towers there was a tiny entrance on the east side, because that´s where the sun comes up and a new life starts. Especially the largest tower was impressive how it was built with such big rocks that fit together perfectly (it was pre-Inca). On the way back to Puno we stopped to visit a traditional house where we had potato with clay mayonnaise (the clay is taken from the river and used as a sauce)! Back in Puno we saw a big parade, which is a common thing in Puno (there is a parade every week). There were amazing costumes and it was very big. On October 17th we took a bus at 7:30am to La Paz and arrived at 5:30pm. We stopped in Copacabana (town on Lake Titicaca on Bolivian side) for 90 minutes. The bus ride also included a ferry trip. Fortunately we took a separate boat than the bus, because the bus looked like it was going to fall off the ferry from the wobbling. Apparently big buses don´t go through there anymore, because one of the buses actually fell into the lake.