Peru - Room Service

Aqui estamos en Puno, tomorrow we head towards Cusco and a five day trek.

Since we last wrote, we have toured a funerary (burial ground) of pre-Inca and Incan cultures. There was a tower about 12 meters tall where they would put the mummies, with food, supplies, gold etc for the mummies as they went on to the next life. The mummies were made by taking out all of the organs and then putting them in a fetal position to fit them in a basket no more than 2-3 feet long. We still had trouble with the altitude (so much for being tough Coloradans).

The next day we left early on our tour of the islands. First we hit a reed island. It is called a floating island - because it really floats on the mats of reed that the people lay down. It felt like walking on stale mashed potatoes. The people make their houses, boats, and even eat the reeds. We tried some it tasted sort of like - wet nothing.

From the reed island we went three more hours by boat to Amantani island. The people there have tried very hard to preserve their traditional way of life - and we came to exploit it. We were met by a family and we were taken to their house where we stayed for the night. It was a breathless 30 min climb to the top of the village where they lived. We first found the bathroom which was not a proper toilet nor was it close to the house. It was a pit with a concrete throne about 6 inches off the ground. There were two little foot pads, aiming was a bit difficult. For some reason later that night we did not even use the toilet.

Since we are on our honeymoon, Andrea has demanded room service - luckily I am off the hook because we had it on the island for lunch, dinner and breakfast the next day. The house was set up so that the table we ate at was in our room so the family brought us our meals there. This worked out well because we did not have to act like we liked the food in front of them. In fact, for lunch we had some tubers which looked like giant larvae and looked like poo on the inside - white outside, black inside. We also had some fried cheese that tasted like vomit. We stuffed a bunch of this in a ziploc bag and hid it in Andreas backpack so as not to be rude. For dinner, we were eating our first course of soup when Andrea found a mealworm in her spoon. The silver spoon was tarnished and only a few more bites of soup were eaten. The rest of dinner was good - rice and potatoes. Breakfast was also good - homemade bread and a fried egg. Tonight we ate alpaca and chicken in a coca-cola sauce - ¡que rico!

The family was very nice - Andrea played volleyball with the little girl. The mom and dad both welcomed us with open arms and gave us a lot of kisses. Very nice people who truly live on what they can grow on their small piece of land. All of their kids except for the youngest girl (7 years old) had moved off the island so that they could work.

On the way back from Amantani, we stopped at Taquile island. The people on this island also have tried to retain their customs and traditional ways. They are more organized than the other island and they exist as a cooperative group. They all rely on each other for their survival - they build houses together, split tourist money and share the work around the island. They have a traditional style of dress where married men wear a different hat than single men, and the women wear their headdress open if they are married and closed if they are single.

Overall it was a great trip, it gets cold at night. Well below freezing and no heated houses. We had about 5 thick wool blankets to sleep under, plus a romantic three layers of long underwear and a twin bed :)