Tuesday, April 18, 2006
We took a 1st class train from Cusco to Puno on Lake Titicaca - as Kepfram mentioned it was a really nice train. Unfortunately I couldn't really appreciate it. I thought I was getting sick from the altitude. Around the time they served the included (and quite elaborate) lunch I was starting to feel ill (at least Kepfram was there to eat my lunch for me :)
I felt really bad by the time the train stopped briefly at a station on a mountain pass set at 4090m/13,400ft (the highest point on the journey) - I was really nauseous, and later started to feel dizzy and had distorted senses (I didn't realize until we checked into our hotel later that the disorientation was actually fever and the nausea was about to pass and be replaced by a night of running to the bathroom....). Luckily our hotel had an in room bathroom with hot water and towels and the bed was probably the most comfortable I´d slept in in a LONG time (it even had soft pillows, something I've been missing since we left home). So I spent about 24 hours (that evening and most of the next day) in bed, and Kepfram spent 7+ hours in an internet cafe uploading hundreds of photos and catching up on tech news.
I took some antibiotics and by the next day I was mostly recovered so we headed off on our planned expedition of the lake, a tour of the islands on the Peru side: the floating islands of the Uros people (about 35 man made islands - make from cut reads - each housing about 5-15 families), as well as 2 small natural islands (las Islas Amantaní y Taquile) each with a population of about 4000.
In the morning our boat stopped at a couple of las Islas Flotantes (very funny feeling walking on them) - the people fish, grow a small amount of produce on decayed sections of their islands, and make crafts (embroidery and reed sculptures mostly) to sell to tourists.
Then we moved on to Isla Amantaní where we stayed with a local family in a house with no running water or electricity, ate local food (mmMMm Quinoa soup...), watched part of an annual festival for the anniversary of the island (which we happened to hit totally by accident), hiked around (the hiking was a little breathless at over 4000m/13,150ft), and then got dressed up in traditional clothing and went to a traditional dance party they have for the tourists. It was nice, but the cloths were hot, the dancing not that interesting, and the music a little monotonous after a few hours, so feeling a little bad for cutting their fun short, we had the girls from the family who'd accompanied us take us back home.
The next morning we took our boat to Isla Taquile where we hiked around some more, saw a little bit different traditional dress, I took a bunch of surreptitious pictures of children playing, we had lunch, and then headed back to the mainland.
For our tour we had a great guide, on the boat ride back we even had some fun tutoring him on his English. All in all, the tour was one of the highlights of Peru for us.
Ellie
I felt really bad by the time the train stopped briefly at a station on a mountain pass set at 4090m/13,400ft (the highest point on the journey) - I was really nauseous, and later started to feel dizzy and had distorted senses (I didn't realize until we checked into our hotel later that the disorientation was actually fever and the nausea was about to pass and be replaced by a night of running to the bathroom....). Luckily our hotel had an in room bathroom with hot water and towels and the bed was probably the most comfortable I´d slept in in a LONG time (it even had soft pillows, something I've been missing since we left home). So I spent about 24 hours (that evening and most of the next day) in bed, and Kepfram spent 7+ hours in an internet cafe uploading hundreds of photos and catching up on tech news.
I took some antibiotics and by the next day I was mostly recovered so we headed off on our planned expedition of the lake, a tour of the islands on the Peru side: the floating islands of the Uros people (about 35 man made islands - make from cut reads - each housing about 5-15 families), as well as 2 small natural islands (las Islas Amantaní y Taquile) each with a population of about 4000.
In the morning our boat stopped at a couple of las Islas Flotantes (very funny feeling walking on them) - the people fish, grow a small amount of produce on decayed sections of their islands, and make crafts (embroidery and reed sculptures mostly) to sell to tourists.
Then we moved on to Isla Amantaní where we stayed with a local family in a house with no running water or electricity, ate local food (mmMMm Quinoa soup...), watched part of an annual festival for the anniversary of the island (which we happened to hit totally by accident), hiked around (the hiking was a little breathless at over 4000m/13,150ft), and then got dressed up in traditional clothing and went to a traditional dance party they have for the tourists. It was nice, but the cloths were hot, the dancing not that interesting, and the music a little monotonous after a few hours, so feeling a little bad for cutting their fun short, we had the girls from the family who'd accompanied us take us back home. The next morning we took our boat to Isla Taquile where we hiked around some more, saw a little bit different traditional dress, I took a bunch of surreptitious pictures of children playing, we had lunch, and then headed back to the mainland.For our tour we had a great guide, on the boat ride back we even had some fun tutoring him on his English. All in all, the tour was one of the highlights of Peru for us.
Ellie
Kepfram & Ellie, 9:11 PM
