Lake Titicaca

So my small group of 12 got dropped off on Atamani Island in Lake Titicaca to stay the night with various families. Two nice German girls and I stayed with Juana and her family of seven. She has a very nice home with views to die for. We enjoyed a traditional lunch of veggie soup and potatoes. She showed us her kitchen-no electricity but a light bulb! The food and company were great. One of her sons is into Bruce Lee and had posters all over his room and kept asking me if I knew karate. Other members of the group stayed with other families and had a similar experience.

We all hiked up to the top of the island to check out the ruins there. The entire island is terraced into small planting fields that each family works several of with different crops in each terrace. The terracing and the ruins are all pre-Inka culture and continue to be used! The views from the top of the island were stunning. It looks more like an ocean than a lake! We had a great dinner cooked by Juana and got to know her town a bit better. The school is in dire need of computers so I may try to collect some old machines and bring them down here in the future. Overall the people on this island were very friendly, glad to see tourists and had smiles on thier faces. The kids played in the field with the pigs, ducks and chickens. I even saw a few horses too.

A touristy party was planned for the evening but a big storm rolled in and dumped about two inches of hail on us canceling the party. No worries, I needed a good night of sleep.

The next morning we awoke to a heavy rain storm and a delicious breakfast from Juana - similar to grits with fresh bread and tea. We walked down to the harbor to catch our boat to another island before returning to Puno. The swells were 3-4 feet and it was an exciting boat ride to the other island, Oruni. We hiked again to the top of the island to see some more ruins. |The ruins were not that impressive and the people didnt seem very welcoming. Our guide said it was because of the rain, but I wonder. . . .

We boarded the boat around 2pm for the 3 hour trip back to Puno. The waters had calmed and we were cruising nicely for about 45 minutes when the boats motor died on us. There we were, adrift on Lake Titicaca for about two hours - totally Gilligans Island style. Several of the other passengers got scared and angry - I had no worries. Two other tour boats stopped to pick up passengers but there was no room for the two German girls and me. We hung out another hour playing cards, drinking pisco and laughing for another hour until another boat came for us. What a great time we had!

Needless to say I got back to Puno too late to cross the border into Bolivia so I stayed at a nice Hostel and checked out the town. There was a great pizza joint -wood fired, stone oven - and a fun reggae bar where I met a few locals and knocked back a few beers. Then it was too bed and off to Copacabana the next morning!