Floating islands on the lakeOct 20, 2019
|
|
decoration on a wall in hotel
I like this weave of island people across from our hotel
looking towards the bar
Movie Clips - Playback Requirements - Problems?
(MP4 - 2.82 MB)
singing You Are My Sunshine to natives
After breakfast, we walked down from the hotel to an enclosed tourist boat to see the floating islands in a bay near us. We were greeted by members of a family living on an island, and they explained how the islands are built.
At the end of the rainy season, the roots of the tall reeds float! The people cut the roots into cubes and transport them to their island to either replace old ones or add on to their island or build a completely new one. They have to tie the cubes back together, then lay reeds on top of the roots. So, the roots are 6 feet thick and the reeds are 3 feet thick before laying down reeds as a foundation to their thatched houses. They put a clay dome on a stone and use it to produce fire to cook their food. They eat little fish and bird eggs and birds and reeds and potatoes from the mainland. Because these people sit so much to make their goods to sell, they are so much bigger than the Peruvian people we have been seeing. So we are encouraged to buy stuff from them instead of leaving them tips.
After the presentation, the people took us two by two to their house to show us the inside of one. I ended up by myself, so it was only me that saw her "market". I bought a bracelet for a little money, but I lost that bracelet before too long because it came untied when I didn't know it!
Next, we went to another floating island where they had us dress in their outfits and have pictures taken. We were given a ride on a replica of the boats they used to use, filled with plastic bottles now to make the boats last longer. I chose the single canoe style boat instead of the con-tiki style boat. That ride cost each of us $10 Soles (about $3.50) and we were taken to another island where we could get our passports stamped for 1 Sol. We got back into our tourist boat and went to the village for lunch.
We had a free afternoon at the hotel, so Cindy and I walked outside for a bit looking for birds. We saw a yellow woodpecker which was identified for us as an Andean Flicker. We also saw quite a few wild guinea pigs. Sunset was okay, but the view outside our room is spectacular!
