On-the-Road Tales

Headed to the boat Thursday morning. Vessel caried about 22 people and the group was from Argentine, Italy, Japan, Korea, and some Suisse. We managed to communicat in a bad mixture of french and spanish. About 30 minutes out of Puno, we stoppd in Uros. These people, trying to find a haven from fighting tribes all about the lake decided to just live in the water. Hey why not. There boats were made of reeds, or rushes as we call them in Ireland, and they latched them all together. Eventually. they just made islands with layers of the reeds. There houses, watchtowers, boats verything are made of this. They keep a small pool of open water in the middle of their islands for fish nets or washing. Here is me complaining about my stuff being wet and these people live in a lake! Bizarre. You can even eat the reeds. See Grace — all those yers of trying spongy rushes and turns out they are rich in Iodine and calcium.

Next we headed to Amantani, an island about 2 hours out. This is the largest lake in the AMericas, so more like a sea. I figured the captain is from centuries of seafaring stock so when we began rolling and rocking and visions of the Baltimore water taxi accident went through my head, I hoped seamanship would prevail. Our guide was originally for the island and very knowledgable. Her description of the history and beliefs was impressive. The preincan people. obseesed with science, astronomy and philiosophy had actually figured out the pi and based their chocana cross on its masurements and all their monuments wre based on mathematics and important angles and trig equations. We eventually docked with several people looking green and were met by the islanders. I was told to follow the woman standing before me in traditional dress, Liliana. I headed up a field after here with my bag in tow. Over walls, through potato fields, ascending all the way. We got to her house and I was given a room and a typical lunch of rice, french fries and soup. SHe had 4 children, the oldest about 8 carried the youngest on her back as everyone does here. Yesterday I was passing homesteads from the past, today I was living in them. There was no electricity, no running water and all the cooking was done in black pots over the wood driven fire by candlelight. The eco latrines put in by the govt were adobe huts which consisted of a hold in the ground.
I met the group and we headed up the mountain, stopping often as the air at 4000 meters was even more difficult to exert in. Finally reaching the top which was a temple dedicated to the god of everything above. You could see around the whole lake. Had some wonderful pinchina (sp) friends pancakes with honey. When I arrived back at the house I ate dinner with the family in the small, room containing the fire. There were not seats and a dirt floor so we sat on planks of wood. The family soke Quechua but the father spoke spanish so we conversed. After dinner, the little girl helped me dress by candlelight in the traditional garments for the evenings dance. Okay, I bitched about climbing the hill before…now I was doing it in the dark in a freaking corset. It was not pretty. Got tothe hall where there were 2 bands playing and the kids had us out dancing. Again. nothing is easy at 12000* feet. Everyone kept stopping to get their breath but it was a great night. Lots of laughter and through the few break in the clouds, the stars were stunning. Headed back down the mountain for a surprisingly peaceful nights rest on a straw mat.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.