Puno & the Floating Island Tour

Having arrived in Puno, E-J was still struggling form the Inca trail and was in need of some well earned sleep! With the local annual fiesta occuring that week and the relentless street processions occurring, Puno didn´t seem like the best place to be!

Having found accommodation we battled our way through the street processions and hundreds of people to book a two day island tour to the Uros Islands (the Floating Islands) the Amantani Island (where we stay with a local family) and the Taquille island.

The night before our tour we enjoyed a good meal. Sam tucked into some juicy Alpaca meat, concerned that this may be the last good meal he ate for 48 hours!

Rising in the early morning, we headed for the Puno docks and boarded are 16 man boat. The Uros Islands were our first stop and after a pleasant 30 minute trip, E-J took in the Floating Island, whilst Sam rested his eyes!

We also took one of the local´s reed boats across to another floating island. Sam found all of this very unpleasant and commercial, what with being crammed on a tiny boat with sixteen other tourists and the fact that the boat was called Titanic..., but E-J seemed to love every minute!

We then boarded the boat for another 3 hour journey until we reached the Amantani Island. Although it felt very far away, it was only 30 kilometres, but the rough boat journey over seemed to make it take forever! By lunch time we had found our destination and were introduced to our hosts for the evening, Patrick and Anastasia. Our slight concern was that they spoke little spanish (though neither did we) so there would be a lot of communication via gesture and hand movement... Their main language was Quechua, which can only be described as sounding very similar to the language of Donald Duck!

When we arrived at their farm, we quickly helped peel potatos, which were to be used for lunch. At this point we were slightly concerned about the purple patched potatos as we really didn´t fancy an uncomfortable night with very limited bathroom facilities! For lunch, we had potato soup, followed by rice, meat in bread crumbs and potatos, which was more than enough carbs!

In the afternoon we met with our guide again and were told about the area and the history of the families who lived on the island.

As the sun came down, E-J climbed up 1000 feet to the point of 4200m above sea level to catch a beautiful sunset. Whilst Sam enjoyed a rather breathless game of football with the locals.

In the evening (after E-J had discovered she had seriously scorched her face in the sun, with the stupid lack of sun block) we sat in our hosts kitchen/bedroom and enjoyed a meal of (once again) potato soup, rice, chicken and potatos! After the evening meal we were quickly changed into the local, authentic dress and headed for the town hall for some local dancing!

We were quickly excorted onto the dance floor by our hosts and to the sounds of a local band. Being swung around in a huge group can only be described as a Peruvian conga and with the aid of a few beers this continued into the night, until we were completely worn out by 11pm. We both slept extremely well that night!

In the morning there was just enough time for a quick pancake breakfast before saying our goodbyes and heading back onto the boat. An hour later we arrived onto the Island of Taquille. Taquille is an incredibly honest place where there is no crime, so no one locks their houses and there are no police. Also, it is common for the locals to be married before 20 and if the girls exceed this age they are looked upon as a bit of a spinster! After a stroll around the island and taking in the beautiful surroundings we enjoyed a lovely, fresh trout lunch.

We then had a 4 hour boat trip back to Puno and by the time we arrived back we were both absolutely shattered and enjoyed a quiet night in, watching terrible Peruvian television!

Sams Comments: Fantastic trip, great family, only problem was the frenchman who took offense to one of my mistimed football tackles!

EJ Comments: I really enjoyed the experience but a skeptical side of me can´t help thinking that maybe it is all a bit of a tourist scam and the Amantani people don´t actually live in this basic accommodation that they entertain us in, but have a large pad behind this with all the modern compliances and possibly even a plasma screen! This may also explain why they kept leaving the room whenever they had to get something...