I think that I was the only one going "alone", everybody else had booked a 3 hour trip to the reed islands. I met some nice people from Ucayali, Peru and one American guy who is traveling nearly all of South America in 3 months. It was quite amusing how he explained me his plans and how convinced he was that he was getting to know lake Titicaca really well in 3 hours and Rio in 2 days. I didn´t tell him that 5 weeks in Peru still left me with a feeling of only knowing a tiny part of the country, the culture, the people...
Unfortunately there is no boat going straight to the island where my lodge was situated, so I had to stop with the tour group at another reed island first. I called it the island of the fat people as everybody seemed to be overweight. We all had to sit down in a circle and our guide and the fat locals explained how the floating islands are made from the "totora" reed, what else you can do with totora and last but not least they sang some songs. Some of the tourists actually gave the candy to the fat people - I thought it was hilarious and sad at the same time. I couldn´t wait to leave and jusat hoped that "my" island would be better. From the fat peoples island we went to "my" island in a reed boat - had to pay a 6 soles extra each. Two little kids from the fat peoples island went with us and kept on singing songs in different languages - or at least that´s what they thought they were doing. A few times you could actually understand a bit of the lyrics - but not always. They tried French, Hebrew, Japanese... and a hilarious version of "Twinkle twinkle little star". Of course they went around with their heads after arriving on "my" islands. And they tried to sell some of their drawings as well. All in all the visit to the first island was horrible - very touristic, fake and commercial. It was starting to rain, too, and I wasn´t sure anymore if this was going to be an adventure or just a desaster...
Thank God "my" island seemed much nicer. The inhabitants where younger and in better shape and there even was a little cafe and restaurant. I found Ruben, the guy running the lodge with whom I had mailed before. He is about my age and seemed ok. He introduced me to all his family members living on the island and showed me my home for the next two days: a little reed hut with a bed, nothing more. No bathroom, no electricity... there is just one toilet on the whole island and it is very basic: a kind of reed outhouse, it doesn´t even have a roof! But adventure was what I was looking for, so I didn´t worry about the toilet too much.
After the tour group had left life on little "Kamisaraki" island calmed down. I met my "neighbours" - Alejandro and Juliano from Argentina:
They had traveled from Argentina overland to Lake Titicaca and had decided to spend one night on "Kamisaraki" island to get some rest. Sounded good to me. We had lunch together and then wanted to set off in a little rowing boat that Ruben had offered us to visit some of the neighbour islands. Alejandro and I where already sitting in the little boat, trying to figure out how the oars worked when Juliano came running from the reed huts, just dressed in his swimming trunks and sreaming jumped into the cold lake. Everybody from the island came running to see what had happened and poor Alejandro seemed to be really embarrased by his friend ;-)
The first island we visited was much smaller than ours and we only stayed a short time as everybody was leaving for a reunion on a different islands. Juliano had not come with us to the island and had taken a nap in the boat. When we called to him to pick us up he lost one of the oars and a kid from the island had to rescue him with his boat - it was pretty funny, Juliano in his swiming trunks, trying to get back the row, screaming in his thick Argentinian accent and everybody looking... once again Alejandro who is the opposite of his outgoing friend seemed very ashamed. Finally Juliano got back the oar and we went to the next island. When we were "landing" a women in traditional dress came to help us tie the boat to a pole and greeted us with the Aymara "Kamisaraki" - "How are you"? She showed us her island - the nicest one we had seen so far. They had planted flowers and vegetables and there even was a little model of a reed island with boats and dolls and all floating on a little "lake" inside the island. I took a liking to her when she showed us the guine pigs and when asked how to prepare them started laughing and said that they were just pets and would never be eaten. Finally! :-)
And then little Nathalie arrived: huge rubber boots on her feet, wearing a pink dress and trying to walk with the help of a huge stick. She is 2 years old and the sweetest thing you can imagine! The kids on the islands seem to lead a pretty free and fun live - when we went back to the main "square" to talk to her mum, little Nathalie and her friends undressed and went swimming.
Nathalies Mum asked us to sit down with them and converse a bit. She is a warm and friendly person and it was great to finally meet some locals who are not singing for money or begging to buy their craftswork!
After the tourists have gone live is back to normal and very calm... so I guess Nathalie's mum and her family also enjoyed to have some entertainment in form of a German girl and two Argentinians - one with an antique camera and the other one in swimming trunks.
The ladies enjoyed to play with my hair and to dress me up. I had to try on some hats and finally the whole typical outfit. The pompoons they braided into my hair were so heavy that after one hour I got a headache ;-) The skirt is very heavy, too, but a good protection from the cold, I guess.
Soon one of the guys joined us, too and asked me to teach him a bit German. I taught him how to say hello, ask the name etc. And then he and the ladies wanted to know how to say "Please, buy my work" or "Please, take home a souvenir" ;-) To my surprise they knew a German children's song ("Alle meine Entchen") - but they didn't know what it meant and I had to translate. They burst into laughter when I told them it was about the little ducks which had their little heads under water and their... here I had to use sign language, as I didn't know the Spanish word for tail - sticking out of the water ;-)
Unfortunatly a thunderstorm was coming up and we had to row back to our island. Nathalie's mum asked the two Argentinians to leave me with her, again, but as I had already booked and payed the night on Kamisaraki I left with them.
Before leaving I took pictures with all the cute little girls who just loved to see themselves on the little screen of my camera! Wish we could have stayed longer!
Back on Kamisaraki we had dinner and a lot of coffee, as it was getting more and more chilly. At around 9pm everybody had gone to bed and only the Argentinians, me and Rubens brother-in-law where still up. When Juliano wanted to go to the toilet he told us it was locked. Thank God the Argentinians weren't keen on using the lake as a bathroom and a little rebellion broke out until Ruben's brother-in-law helped us to break open the door to the toilet. He also supplied us with candles and matches and we retreated to our little reed cabins.
The night was chilly and a heavy thunderstorm passed in the early morning hours but inside the cabins it was nice and warm - atleast inside the sleeping bag and under 3 woolen blankets ;-) I slept very well to the sound of the waves and the slight movement of the island...
Next morning we all got up very early as the sun was already very strong. We had breakfast, bought some crafts (we were more or less blackmailed by Ruben's sister ;-)) and I got picked up by my boat to Amantani...
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