The Floating Islands

The saving grace (for me in particular) of our trip to Puno was our stay on Uros Aruma Uro. Melissa and I wanted to do something special for Christmas so we arranged to spend the night in a hostel on a floating island - Uros Aruma Uro. I won't go into all the details of the people because you can google that and find a way better description than I can give, BUT I will say that there are about 90 floating islands on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca (Bolivia claiming the other side). Anywhere from 2-6 families live on each island so there are a couple thousand people living on the floating islands.

I wish I could come up with a way to convey the tranquility of the islands, but it's almost impossible to do. To live the experience is the only way to really understand. Because of the altitude sickness and The limited entertainment options of Puno, I had already felt like I spend days lounging around and it made me a little twitchy. Yet, when we arrived on the island I automatically felt calm and peaceful. Sitting and looking out onto the lake was restorative. 

Let me back up. Getting to the island was quite the nerve-wracking experience. All of the information only tells you that you need to take a public bus from the port to the island of Uros. It's very cheap - about US$3 for the boat and about US$1.50 to step onto Uros.  You're told that you'll be taken to your final destination island, but there are a ton of warnings that you'll get scammed or that people will harass you about buying their crafts. Most people cave because there is a fear that you'll be left on the island and never make it to your destination. 

Our hostel was in communication with us, but it was limited because of our lack of cell service & the fact that we need to be on wifi to be able to check email. We were assured that all we needed to do was to get to Uros and that our hostel people (think more of like a family stay) would come and look for us. Oh, now would be an appropriate time to mention that there are no real time tables and that boats run from 9 AM to 4 PM ... or sometimes 4:30... or sometimes later if they feel like it.

Long story short: Melissa and I held our ground and waiting for our host family to pick us up, despite people telling us we were required to take the tourist boat to the next island and being cursed out of a woman's house because we wouldn't buy any of her crafts. We may have heard grumbles and "Americanas..." as we scurried out. 

Because I'm having a hard time with the wifi and getting longer posts to upload, I'll end with some pictures but continue on in my next post.

 

This was our home stay island - Uros Aruma Uro.

 

Again, our home stay island. To the right is where we ate and all the way to the left are the bathrooms. Further left would have been our room, but it's not in the picture.