Trip to Amantani Island

Monday August 17

Today was a bit of an epic journey. We got the boys out of bed at 2:00 am to get to the airport to catch our flight to Juliaca (near Lake Titicaca). Talk about a bunch of sleepy heads. Surprisingly, the airport was very busy at 3:00 am. The highlight of the flight was we arrived in Puno and went to get our luggage. We found all of the bags but discovered that we were missing one kid. Alex Wiecke had woken up when we arrived but somehow managed to fall back asleep before getting off the plane. We discovered this just as the plane was about to leave. They went and found him, still asleep just in time.

We arrived by bus in Puno just in time to get on our boat for the three hour ride to Amantani Island. The weather was just beautiful and the scenery kind of looks like the dry hills around Kamloops Lake. When we arrived at the Island we were met by a large congregation of local families. We were divided into four groups, with each staying with one family. The accommodations were very spartan, a simple outhouse, rather hard beds with lots of blankets (there is no heat and the temperature at night is close to zero) and the kitchen where most of the cooking is done over a wood fire in a brick and clay oven.

The food was fabulous but simple. Each meal had a hearty soup with potatoes, vegetables, chinois(sp) and vegetables and a rice dish with vegetables. Drinks were coffee and coca tea. The boys all love the tea as it takes away any headaches from being at altitude. AFter lunch we went to watch a soccer game ( we were invited to play, bu the altitude was a bit much for us on our first day at Lake Titicaca (elevation 3600 metres). We then hiked to the top of the Island at about 3750 metres to watch the sunset - it was spectacular.

After a dinner at about 7:00 we were dressed up in local garb (ponchos and hats) and went to the community dance. About 150 people showed up, about half locals and half tourists. Once the music started (Peruvian pan pipes, drums and guitars) everyone was up dancing, initialy in small groups, then in a long line dance type thing. It was quite hilarious to see the boys dancing with some of the ladies and girls from the Island, particularly Bryan Piggott who at 6`4" was about 18 inches taller than the lady that asked him to dance. The stars in the sky were just incredible, the Milky Way was very clear.

Off to bed early to catch up on the sleep we have missed the last three nights.