climb every mountain... part3

where did i last leave off...oh yeah, sister mouse and i were hopping a flight to puno, peru (near the coast of bolivia) at 4 am. damn, the lima airport is busy at 4am! we were go to puno to do an eco-tourism journey on lake titicaca. at the last minute i realized that i had not given our information to our tour guide on where to pick us up at, so at 3am i shot him an email letting him know when our flight was arriving (in a city about 45 mins away.) then we jumped on a plane and started praying that it would work out, because neither of us had any way to contact the other. as we walked off the tarmack at the juliaca airport i saw this cute little old man holding up a sign that said NICOLE MOORE. i breathed a sigh of relief and thanks the Lord for, once again, seeing me through. these are the parts of life i love the most.

we hopped in a van-thing and scooted toward puno. victor, our host, and owned of the company we booked the tour through talked to me all the way about the history of the area and what we would be doing. victor is a rockstar. he reminded me alot of my grandpa ray. he knew everything there was to know about the indigenous people of the area. we were kinda late, so we ended up with our own privat tour and our guide john. john was the best! he was 23 and grew up on one of hte islands we would be visiting.

we arrived in puno, dropped off our big packs at the tavel office, and only took what we needed for the night. then they wisked us down to the pier and popped us on a boat. lake titicaca (i know, i know, funny name. get over it.) is absolutly stunning. it is the hioghest nagigatable lake in the world and borders boliva.

after about a 45min ride we arrived at out first destination, The Floating Islands of Uros. Dude, this place is CRAZY!! there are about 60 islands and they make them out of reeds, so they are literally floating on the water. it was so weird to get out an walk on them. each island has between 2-16 families who live there and each island has a pricipal elder or president. the principàl elder of our islad greeted us at our boat and showed us how thay make the islands and how they make their boats out of the same reeds. he also let us go inside their house. and he gave us a ride on one of his reed boats. all the islands have a community kitchen, and one even has a primary school. it was crazy! the island people also made lots of hanidcrafts so we got to buy some goodies from them. tourism is their main source of income, so it was a bit cheesy unless you focused on how amazing the place was.

after that we hopped back on our boat and took a 2.5 hour ride to the Island of Amantani, where we would be staying with a local family for the night. its a good sized island, and once we arrived we were greeted by all the host families and assigned to one. Sister mouse, john, and i were hosted by mario and sylvia. they dont speak english, and only a little spanish. their native languae was quechua. but since john grew up there, he was a great translator for us. we went back to sylvias house and she shoed us our room. it was nice, basic, 2 beads, very clean. the bathroom was downstairs and sister mouse got to discover that you have to add water to the toilet tank to get it to flush. they fed us lunch , just about hte time the altitude sickness hit sister and she vomited all over their house. twice. after she was feeling better, we went down to the primary school and worked with the kids teaching them english. i had the table of ten 4 to 8 year olds. and sister had the 9 to 13 year olds. by the end of our time there i had lost all the interest of the kids at my table and they were now over in the corner laughing and saying something in quechua abouyt me. sister mouse on the other hand, had her table speaking fluant english and signing all kinds of songs in english. so kids aren´t my thing...

that evening we were to climb to the highest peak of the island Pachamama. it is carnival time here and there was a big celebration happening. 40 minute walk, john said. i don´t know what it is about johns and making me climb mountains but SERIOUSLY. this place made the black forrest hike a walk in the park!! it was at about a 70 degree incline, and lets not forget we are over 13,000 mile above the sea, so ther is NO oxygen. seriously i could feel everyone of my organs shutting down. i took us over 2 hours to get to the top. the party was long over by the time we got up there. we passed everyone coming down. 3 little boys approached me as i sat to catch my breath and i let them paint my face with chalk for carnival. it was pretty funny. by the time weapproached the top the lake was glassy calm and stained red by the setting sun. as we rested at the top the rains came in as night fell and as sister, john and i began our decent down in the dark, with just my tiny flshlight to guide us, we both agreed there was nowhere else in the world we would rather be....

we made it down much quicked than going up, went back to our host family for dinner, where it was my turn to get sick. mine in the form of the worst headache i have had in a long time. i ended up skipping dinner and going to bed. that night while i was sleeping the island threw a fiesta and dressed the visitos up in traditional Amantani clothing. i awoke to sylvia decking out my sister in a killer outfit! sister and john went to the fiesta and danced and i passed out and prayed for death.

when morning came, we ate breakfast with our family, then it was off to another island, Taquile. it was so sad to say goodbye to sylvia and mario. they were soooo sweet to us. as we were boarding our boat sylvia kept giving us kisses on our cheeks. sylvia was the best. we love you sylvia.

an hour later we arrived at Taquile island. we were only there for part of the afternoon. it is absolutly gorgeous. we ate at a small home restaurant overlook the main square and en joyed the towns people as the marched around playing musical instruments for carnival. then back to our boat and back to puno.

once we got back to puno, victor helped us find a place to stay that night and arrange for your bus ticked to cusco the next day. our little hotel was nice. we met up with a girl from holland, sonne, that we me on our boat and we all had dinner together. then back to our room for a HOT much needed shower, and to bed. tomorrow we leave for cusco.... stay tuned....

xoxo, the mice who are now so freah and so clean!