Days 17 & 18 - The Floating Reed Islands of the Uros Indians on Lake Titicaca and our Homestay with a local family of Ayamara Indians on Amantani Island! The altitude really seemed to have affected quite a lot of us and I was still feeling breathless and a tad anxious because of it. Weird how it can hit you one day and not the next, not the best feeling sometimes! Anyway after breakfast we hilariously boarded the two seater local cyclo's and in line travelled through the local streets down to the harbour. Our poor cyclo driver almost wiped out trying to get us down this half dug up street so embarrassingly Ads and I were the only 2 that needed to get off and walk! Then racing down the streets our cyclo broke so he had to push us the rest of the way, it was a funny sight to see the group racing each other to the boat and yet another amazing form of transport to add to our list! After buying pulses and grains as a gift for our family we were soon aboard our boat heading across the deep blue and emerald waters of Lake Titicaca which is not only huge but stunning also, without doubt the most beautiful lake after Guatemala we have seen. Our first stop was at the weird and extremely bizarre reed floating islands of the Uros Indians. You had to be there to believe it and it definitely is an experience we will never forget. Basically the Indians hand make the islands out of tortoro reeds from the lake then hope that they won't sink, it was incredible, even the local boats in a Viking style shape were made out of Reeds, unbelievable! The Indian ladies of our island greeted us with the biggest smiles ever, they were such friendly and welcoming people, which compared to many other local communities we have visited on our world trip this made it a lot easier! The men were off fishing so we only met the ladies and their young children all dressed in beautiful bright traditional costume with reed huts for houses and not a lot else! Our guide described to us how it took them a year to build this small island and took a month to build one house, he explained that as the ladies were so inactive with a fish & a reed diet only, the life expectancy was only 55 years. It was an incredible place though, so weird to be walking on reeds feeling like you were going to sink and to be here in the middle of such a vast and beautiful lake, it was so peaceful and the reed houses of one room for the entire family looked so comfortable, I could have easily just chilled here for a few days! Unfortunately our guide said that before long the life that we saw of the Indians before us would be no more as young children growing up wanted more and were heading to sample the more modern living of Puno never to return to the islands again. Such a shame but we were so glad that we'd managed to capture the experience before this happened. The ladies then took us for a ride on the reed boats which was lots of fun and mum and Ian had a go at rowing! This meant we did lots of circles but it gave the ladies a much needed rest. On returning mum fell trap for the hard sale of the local ladies and bought a beautiful tapestry which would have taken them a month to make, then we waved goodbye and set off for the 3 hour journey to our homestay island. The lake was just huge and in the distance we could also see our next destination which borderd the south of the lake, Bolivia! Around us also were many remote rocky islands and it was cool to know that this lake had great spiritual significance for local people also in that they believe that the first Inca Emperor 'Manco Capac' rose from its waters to begin the Inca Empire! On arriving at our island 55km later, our guide referred to it as paradise and yes it was, just beautiful with the most stunning setting ever, Lake Titicaca all around and the most peaceful of places with only 11 villages, no stray dogs (as the locals didn't like the noise they make!) and no transport whatsoever even push bikes! The four of us were put together and the grandfather of our chosen family, Pedro and his son Raul, greeted us at the boat. They seemed such kind and lovely people, dressed smartly in their black hats and back waist coats. We then slowly hiked up the brow of the island towards our family home for the night and on arriving were greeted by Raul's wife, Bonita, 5 yr old daughter, Yanet and grandmother. Already we could instantly see how poor they were, the three of them in dirt ridden clothes looking grubby surrounded by a dusty mud area for living, mud brick small house and tiny outhouse kitchen with open fire for cooking. They greeted us with such warmth and big smiles though which enabled us to relax so much more than our homestay experiences in Laos, and we felt quite guilty when Pedro led us to our rooms for the eve, separate rooms which were basic but a far cry from the cramped small quarters they all shared below! Mum and Ians room had a door fit for someone umpaloompa size with the lowest ceiling so Ian had fun climbing into it! We were in a newer room with brilliant views of the lake and our wooden beds with reeds for the main mattress were lumpy but interesting! Pedro then called us for lunch and in the small family kitchen we were served with a gorgeous vegetable soup, mint/cocoa tea and a plate of many potatoes of all shapes and sizes. To know how long it would have taken them to grow and make this meal over the open fire made us feel guilty even more and despite the language barrier being quite hard they seemed to appreciate us attempting to speak to them/learn words in their local language 'Quechan' so smiles were all around as we ate. After, Pedro said it was siesta time so we relaxed under the many kilogram blankets in our room resting for the big football match later against the locals! This took place later on a concrete basketball type court they had against the locals who seemed to just love paying football and on all accounts were very good!! The boys (plus Luiza!) played first and managed to beat the locals by a goal only despite having more men and most of us cheering for the peruvians! Ian did well in goal though and Ads managed to run around like a loony and score which was good considering the altitude and the fact that one of the young lads was nicknamed Ronaldo! Then it was onto the girls match against the local ladies which all I can say consisted of lots of huffing and puffing, no particular skills at all and mum being caught up in the middle of a 2 local lady sandwich when she had the ball which was highly hilarious!! Needless to say we lost then it was back to the men for another game of better skills! All the group were also in their hats that the families had made them. Our family had also made us gloves too and to think that these simple items would probably had taken them a week to make made you even more willing to buy them even if you were totally brassic as we were! Tom, Bilynda and Barry had the cutest girl and boy in their family who kept them all active needing constant attention. Yanet had now joined us and appeared less shy so mum and I attempted to play 'Jacks' with her with the most bizarre rules ever, ie there didn't appear to be any!! The night was slowly drawing in and the boys had won another match so a trophy was presented to them followed by a big group photo, the locals seemed to really enjoy us being there and it was good to feel that perhaps the small influence of tourism here was not actually a bad thing. Carrying Yanet back home, it was then siesta time again, this was short lived though as by now their 6 year old son, also called 'Ronaldo' (their father loved football!) had now finished school and the children wanted to entertain us playing with our cameras taking photos and playing. We managed to palm them onto mum and Ian for abit (much to Ians horror I think!) and felt abit bad as we heard mum having to dance with them for about an hour not getting any sleep. Then the famous words we dreaded were heard...'why don't we go and show Nikki and Adam your dancing' so back in they came and no sleep was had for another half an hour as the kids showed us the many local dances and songs they knew! Such cool kids but for the non maternal twosome it was tough work ha ha!! Roll on babysitting Madison as by then we will be experts!! Our family called us to dinner and tonight we had soup followed by a potato type curry. First we gave our family the gifts of pulses, rice, oil etc.. and they gave us the biggest hugs ever and seemed so grateful, if only we could have given them more. The fruit that mum and Ian brought went down very well and we wished we had bought more of it as we didn't realise fruit on the island is very rare the kids couldn't get enough of the banana's! We attempted more communication with the family, it was good to eat with them but again we had the table whilst they sat on the floor which again makes you feel bad. Then that eve it was ready for the traditional dancing!!! Bonita came in and dressed myself and mum up in the most beautiful local traditional costume that the ladies wear everyday, myself in a bright blue thick plain skirt, thick floral blouse, bright and tight striped waist band and black foral shawl, mum in similar but a bright green skirt, we looked hilarious! The weight of the outfits was unbelievable but they were so warm and knowing they had taken Bonita a month to make just one by hand made it even more special that we were experiencing this local tradition. Ads and Ian were put in wicked colourful poncho's with the local woolly hat they had, both looking forward to the dance ahead......not!!! What a foursome we looked like! Then with the family we hiked up to the local community hall to meet the rest of the group. The hall was like a school disco from when we were 10, chairs round the edge with a lady at one end selling coke and beer (well minus the latter!) on a small table with a hand written sign of costs. It was so funny to see everyone in their costumes and lots of laughs were had! A local band of young boys playing wooden flutes, panpipes and a banjo style instrument started off the traditional music and with horror Ads was pulled up first by Bonita to start off the dancing!!! Thankfully for all of us the dances are quite repetitive and simple, ie you hold hands and go back and forth for abut 10 minutes and get twirled around once if you are lucky every now and again. Raul grabbed me up and Pedro was with mum so Ian was the lucky one to get let off the first dance!! Many other dances continued, again much of the same apart from one where, like an English barndance, you held hands and raced around in a circle through human arches etc... it felt like we had gone back in time 30 years!! All in all it was lots of fun and it was good to see our family enjoying the evening, most appreciative also of the beer and cokes that Ian bought them. Mal and Jody also did the same for their family, only to see the wife take the coke back at the end of the night untouched to get the money back!! Sleeping that night was fun, I think we got a few hours on the lumpy bumpy bed and going to the small tin toilet in the yard in the dark was fun too. The night sky was really bright though with so many stars and as we had no curtains we got to see the sun rise over the lake too which was just beautiful. Ronaldo then awoke us saying breakfast was ready now 15 minutes before we were due to be up so very bleary eyed and half dressed we sat down to pancakes at 6.45am with jam bizarrely termed 'fanny jam', nice! A family photo and more goodbye hugs were then had then to his horror Yanita grabbed Ads hand and 'on the school run' together they went down the hill, Ads definitely getting some practice perhaps for looking after Madison!!! Ronaldo then grabbed Ians hand (mum and I were redundant for the day!) and on the school run Ian also went down towards the docks. I felt sad to say bye to the family, they were such warm and beautiful people and if we ever could I would love to come and see them again one day. Waving goodbye back on the boat it was for another hour to the island of Taquille. As we climbed more steps towards the plaza our guide stopped for rest and told us some interesting stories about the place, again no dogs or transport exist here as peace and quiet is the name of the game, many locals wish to live here (e.g our guide Percy) but unless as a man you were VERY good at knitting, they wouldn't have you and electing a mayor for the island for the year was by hand vote, took only 2 hours and that was it! The plaza at the top had beautiful vista's around of the lake and after opting for a cheap sandwich for lunch we all headed back down the MANY steps again to the boat ready for our 3 hour return across the lake to Puno. This time an elderly local man joined us and proceeded to knit the start of a hat the entire way which after 3 hours he must have done a 10cm thick rim only, which hit home so much that the money asked from our family for our hats was nothing compared to the work gone into them! That afternoon it was back to Rico's for more cake and quiche then after watching some mad local dancing of local youngsters in fury animal costumes, we all went out for pasta and beer for our last night in Peru as tomorrow we would cross the border into destination 17, BOLIVIA!