Joanna's Journal: Floating Islands

Saturday we, the students, headed out on our last visitations while Rachel finished up translating the class. We were supposed to be back at 11 to head out to the famous floating islands of Lake Titicaca. Again, culture is different so Roxana was NOT rushing her conversation (because of the time) with the last person, and then went to go talk to their neighbor! I told her the time, but after we finished that conversation, we had to run! So we literally ran along through the fields, up the hill, until we got the only real road for miles. We ran long that, and cut over some more fields, and only arrived at the church 15 minutes late! (record for us) Stuff took a bit longer than we were thinking, so the ladies were already making lunch... so we had to stay for that! The islands were 3 hours away driving, but that is a lot closer than Urubamba or Clermont. :-)

We got lunch "to go". The potatoes and habas (giant beans) were wrapped in a few blankets to be kept warm, and then handed to me. No tupper ware needed! They also sent along a pot with fish. Now, some fish was ok, and some fish wasn't, but I will post about the food/scenery/random happenings later. :-)

We rode for a long while in the van that day. We pulled off at a scenic lookout (probably just a wide spot in the road) and got a few pictures. It was beautiful! You could see the lake and mountains in the background. Lake Titicaca is so big, that if you see a lake around there, it's Lake Titicaca.

We kept on driving, and then Rachel tells everyone to get out because there is snow on the side of the road! We were really high (14,000 feet) and it must have been leftover from earlier. It was WONDERFUL, and I got to build a snowman! (even if it was 4 inches tall) Also, pelting people with snow balls was a blast too! Especially when they weren't looking. :-) We climbed back into the truck laughing and brushing off the snow that somebody threw at me. It was great having never seen snow before!

We kept going, and Rachel said that it started to fall out of the sky. It was really teeny tiny at first, but then it got to where you could get some snow in your hand and it would be big enough to stay a second. It started to come down enough to have the ground starting to look white and need the wipers etc. (it didn't hurt the driving at all though) Rachel let us get out a second, so Ariel, Juan, Raul, and I got out to get some pictures and throw a snowball. It was so beautiful! (and white and fluffy!) I was excited! So, I have to go to Peru, in July, to see snow for the first time, but it was definitely memorable!

We got to the town of Puno (there is a "state" of Puno, and it's "capital city" of Puno.) and parked our car. Then 8 of us + the driver all piled into this taxi. That was an experience in itself! We got to the islands, and sent the pastor ahead with the students to find out how much it would cost. (it always magically seems to be more expensive to transport gringos) We got on, and had about a 20 minute boat ride to the islands.

We stepped on the island, and your feet seemed to kinda sink into the reeds a bit. This guy gave his talk, and Rachel kindly translated for us. They have to totally re-make the island each year, and each house 2 times a year. What we were standing on was one meter of root/dirt chunks, and 2 meters of dried reeds. If you looked really closely at the island while he was talking, you could see it moving up and down. they couldn't cook on the island (dried reeds obviously are flammable) so they had to put everything on a rock. We got to walk around a bit and see the island. Some spots were unnervingly squishy, and I quickly moved along. :-) We got our picture on a reed boat, which was neat! They had gift shops ON the island, but they were really really expensive, so we stopped at a place before we left.

It was cold and windy on the lake! Last night after game time in youth, Rebekah wanted to give me a hug, and I warned her that I was sweaty... She is like, I went 2 months without hugs! ...and I am like, I went 2 months without sweating! Florida is having a bit different weather right now!

We walked to the market afterwards, because we were looking for a place to eat. (Pastor Jose knew where was best) Saturday was their big market day, so EVERYONE was out. We had some tracts, so as we were walking along, we passed out a bunch. I got a few pictures, and one later is of the market and ALL the piles and piles of potatoes. They grown potatoes there, so that is the most common food. By the end of the week, we were about ready to move onto another food... esp Ariel. :-)

The dinner place was really good! For your dollar menu (3 soles) you could have soup and tea and your choice of 7 entrees. The soup was delicious! I think it was the best in Puno. At the church we had soup every day with lunch, and most every day for breakfast. This soup had loads of noodles in it, and that was great! I had the almond crusted chicken which came with rice and a salad. Then to finish off the meal, they brought out tea. It was sweet and hot, which made it good. I had never had eucalyptus tea before... it tasted interesting.

Then we started our long ride back. Everyone was tired, so with blankets and all we piled in. I can't sleep in the van, but I tried. Juan was feeling board, so got his phone, put it on some Mozart symphony, and tossed it on our blankets. (sigh) When we were heading back to Urubamba on Monday, and he played that song (which was engraved in my memory) I gave him the glare. :-) On different van rides and stuff we would sing some and listen to music, but I was kinda done with classical for a while. So it's late, and we are laid out on the benches, and then we turn off the main paved road onto a dirt one with lots of rocks and holes and stuff. Rachel was tired, so she was going pretty quickly! We had some dramatic people in the car (the 2 guys) and I think them being tired exaggerated their acting even more... falling off seats, hitting their heads on the top etc. It was pretty funny to watch! :-) Rachel said it was 80% drama and 20% lie. :-)

It was a good day! We got to see a pretty amazing sight that a lot of people never have seen, and we got to hang out with and get to know the students better too! I love social fun, and it was great! The whole week in Puno was really packed and really awesome!