I've just arrived home today so I'm just gonna whack some photos up of the last couple of extremely hectic weeks and then I might work on some kind of reflective, what-it's-like-to-be-home, what-I've-learnt-and-how-I've-grown-as-a-person, closure type rambling tomorrow or the next day when my brain has arrived off the plane.
LAKE TITICACA: The Floating Islands
They're totally made of reeds - the islands and the houses on them and the boats the inhabitants travel in.
It sounds like it's very cold. Locals live off tourists and whatever fish they can sell, but they don't have to pay taxes (I guess that's a bonus).
LAKE TITICACA: Amantani Island
We (Julie, my German travel buddy, and I) stayed overnight on this island and these two lovely ladies were our hosts. They were great but very...professional. These islanders also live off tourism and I think the format of a stayover is pretty much the same every time (same menu, same wee dance party) and they host visitors at least once a week.
Interesting courtship fact: Girls from this island go for the guy with the biggest stereo. 80s ghettoblasters are 'in', millenium ipods are 'out'.
LAKE TITICACA: Taquile Island
I was really looking forward to visiting this island cos I'd heard that the inhabitants dress differently depending on their marital status. This is of course very practical and makes it much easier to work out which guys to start chatting up. This was, however, the most commercial island and people would charge you if you wanted to take their photo and everything was ridiculously expensive for tourists. It just felt odd. The guide had warned us that the people were a little cold. It wasn't so much that they were cold as that the relationship between islanders and tourists felt a little odd. They were really only keeping their traditions going entirely for the sake of tourism.
The guy on the left is married (completely red hat) and the guy on the right is single (half white hat). The woman in the background is single (she has pom-poms on the end of her head covering).
Interesting courtship fact: In Amantani Island young (like mid-teens) couples fall in love in only three days or so. Boys have collections of small stones in their pockets that they use to throw at the object of their affection in order to win her over. This, of course, is a technique employed by lads the world over but I love that it's actually a formal, bonafide, cultural tradition on this island. I expect the boys' success relies, as in other cultures, on a surge of pity from the young women at the sheer stupidity and endearing gaumlessness of the young men.
A couple lives together for five years unwed, in which time they must have a child to formalise their relationship, or separate. It is possible to stay together without child, if they so choose, but they have to move off the island.
A couple lives together for five years unwed, in which time they must have a child to formalise their relationship, or separate. It is possible to stay together without child, if they so choose, but they have to move off the island.
MACCHU PICCHU
Awesome. Surprisingly quiet (we got there quite early in the morning) and peaceful. A guy on the train on the way back was saying that the whole mountain is full of a kind of quartz rock that emits good vibes and makes it even more of a feel-good experience. It was his 7th visit to MP. I think much of our feel-good experience came from the sheer beauty of the place, helped along by the fog that rolled in and out of the picture, giving it a spiritual quality. We also felt rather good after we made it to the top of Wayna Picchu (the big pointy hill in the next photo).
Julie's guide book warned us that it was not for the unfit or acrophobic and that tourists had fallen off in the past. We were gonna not and say we did but it feels even better to be saying we did knowing that we actually did. Now you probably don't believe me. But we really did.
