The Floating Island: Part 3

When we finally arrived on Uros Aruma Uro with Juan we were welcomed by his wife, Elsa (I think). She encouraged us to take a load off in the deck chairs and proceeded to make us a delicious lunch. 

 

It was right under these umbrellas where we chilled out for a bit. The quiet and peaceful nature of the area was phenomenal. 

We mostly chilled out during our time on the island, but the coolest part to me was when Percy, Juan's brother, took us out on his reed boat to teach us about the islands and give us some experiences collecting fish from their nets and cutting reeds. The explanations of history and culture were amazing, especially since English was not Percy's first or second language. 

 

 Christmas Day was rough. 😃

 

Percy's teaching us about the reeds.

 

I got the opportunity to cut some reeds myself.

 

Here I am learning about the medicinal properties of the reeds.

 

Percy called the reeds to "bananas of Lake Titicaca".

I can't get the video to work, but my most exciting moment was when I jumped in and took a quick swim in Lake Titicaca. Let's just say I couldn't even get real words out because it was mas frio! 

The Floating Islands: Part 2

Our altitude readings told us that Lake Titicaca was anywhere from 12,500 to 12,800 feet. I've already commented about the potent sun, but it was at the point of getting out onto the lake that Melissa and I recognized our need for copious amounts of sunblock and long sleeves. I had a harder time adhering to the long sleeves because even with my dry fit type material shirts, I was overheating constantly. I kept pushing the water and tried to stay as covered up as possible. From the photos though you can obviously see how absolutely gorgeous it was for us. We were so blessed with the weather because every day there was a prediction for rain, but we actually didn't see any until we returned to Cusco (and only for an hour or so at that). 

 

Here is Melissa on our first boat to Uros. She was trying to stay as covered as possible to protect her fair skin, but also because we're pretty sure one of the side effects of our altitude medicine is photo sensitivity.

 

Here is me while on the boat and crossing Lake Titicaca. 

 

Melissa and I did our best celebrity-avoiding-the-paparazzi impressions while trying to avoid murdering all of our skin cells.

After some hemming and hawing, as well as a super helpful boat captain, Melissa and I were picked up by Juan, one of the family members of our home stay. 

 

Juan took up by power boat to Uros Aruma Uro. 

Stay tuned... 

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.