For our last night in La Paz we had to book into a hotel for the beginning of our 21 day tour of Peru. It was by far the nicest place we had stayed in, we even had tvs in our rooms, which didn`t really matter seeing as we never have the time nor desire to watch it. We met up with our group for dinner for the first time, and we were shocked that we were by far the youngest in the group, making me yet again the baby of the trip. However after minutes getting to know them it soon became apparent that we were not the most immature. Sarah went into skepticism mode, beginning to think we had made a terrible mistake in booking this trip. I on the other hand was trying to find a way in which I could enjoy the following three weeks. I had already decided that one of the members of our tour was a real life David Brent from The Office, after he told us that he did nothing at his work except sit around and have a laugh in his office with the boys. He then went on to tell me about explicit photos he had sent to him by email, one in particular called ¨mittens¨(which I shall leave to your imagination, except that it included 3 girls), that the only female co-worker caught him looking at. He went on to tell me how funny it was that she was offended cos there was nothing she could do about it. It sounded like a truly horrifying work place. All his subsequent stories were equally cringe worthy, especially one about video taping himself making fun of locals who could not speak English. However, as horrible as this man sounds, being able to compare him to David Brent turns him into a hilarious and relatively pathetic charicature.
As it turns out, although there are a few tools in our group, they are relatively harmless and nice enough, and the rest of the group are really nice. One man from Canada called David is particularly nice, and by a strike of coincidence reminds us very much of David Plebs, a fellow Australian called Dale is very friendly, and the three of us are getting on very well with a Canadian girl who is close to our age called Ola.
Upon being assigned to our rooms in the hotel, Sarah and I were assigned to the same room. We looked at each other a little curiously, everyone else had been matched with a same sex room mate, and we were under the impression that males and females were to sleep in separate rooms for the whole trip. We wandered up to our room, opened the door and pissed ourselves laughing. We had been given a room with one double bed! We asked our tour guide what it was all about, he shrugged and said he had nothing to do with it. Then some of the hotel staff saw us and started laughing, one nudged Sarah telling her to enjoy the Matrimonial Suite. I´m not sure if they were taking the piss or what, but we all had a good laugh anyway. I think they were actually just short of rooms, and really it was no big deal to share a bed for a night, and better with Sarah than someone I did`t know. As it turned out we were so tired that our sleep was unaffected by the presence of the other.
Over the past couple of days we have been visiting Lake Titicaca, and it has been a most incredible experience. Yesterday we headed from Puno (a lakeside town) to two large and inhabited Islands. First we headed to Taquile Island, with a population of 2 thousand. It was an immensley beautiful island, where we had the most spectacular of lunches. Sitting at a large table outside at the top of a hill overlooking the lake, we enjoyed a very tasty rice and vegetable soup, and one of the most delicious serves of fried trout I have ever had the pleasure to consume. All whilst a local man played the pan pipes and guitar for us. It was one of the highlights of my trip so far. We then went on to the next Island (the name of which escapes me at present), where we would have our homestay. Sarah and I were assigned to our Mother, Justa, and after a long and exhausting walk from the port, we reached our house. It was a cute mud brick house, with tiny doors, and no electricty (obviously). We then played soccer against the locals (they throughly beat us, but I did set up one of our only goals), and proceeded to do an arduous hike to the temple of Mother Earth. It had the most spectacular view, and along the way our guide told us of the courting rituals of this community. Basically a guy would shine a mirror at the house of a girl he liked to let her know that someone was interested in her. The following day when all the girls went to the shops to buy food, all the guys would wait by the soccer field near by and on their way back would follow them back to their house. Then one of two things would occur. One, she would like him, and throw a pebble aside to let him know she was also interested. 2, she would not like him and run for her life. Some things are universal I guess.
We were fixed a most fantastic dinner, gave our host family some presents, including my recently purchased hacky sack that I had grown quite attatched too. However, the child of the house, Henderson, also had grown attatched to it and was really too cute to be denied of it.
After dinner Justa dressed us up in traditional garb, and took us to a dance. It was a pretty amazing sight, all these whities in Ponchos and fancy dresses that really made the girls look more like they were from Holland than Peru. Our host Mum then took us by the hands and started teaching us the local dance. After awhile I got the hang of it. It was really very difficult. As she threw one hand forward, you would throw the corresponding hand back, and vice versa. Tricky stuff. There was a local band there, and they played songs for 7 to 10 minutes, and thus that´s how long the dances lasted for. It was really very tiring throwing your hands back and forward over and over again. Plus our host Mum looked very disinterested in the whole thing, as if it were a chore. I think in honesty the whole thing was a ploy to make us very tired so we would go to bed early, thus allowing them to do the same. However, it was animmensley fun evening, even if we did go to bed early due to our exhaution. Sarah and I splept like logs, apparently right through the most violent of thunder storms, and awoke early in the morning to Pancakes in bed. It was quite a treat.
From there our boat took us to the floating islands, a spectacular if touristy destination. The locals live on these islands that they have constructed from reeds and that literally float on the lake. It was quite incredible.
We arrived back to Puno this afternoon, and re leaving for Cusco tomorrow morning. It will be our last stop before The Inca Trail, and an opportunity for us all to have a bit of a rest and recover from our various mild illnesses.
I look forward to blogging again there.
Catch ya,
Dylan
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