Homestay on Amantani

The view from ´our´ balcony

The view from ´Pacha Tata´ towards Taquile island

Shy ´Mama´

Part of our time around Lake Titicaca and Puno involved a one night homestay with a local family on the island of Amantani, 38km into the massive lake. We were quite keen for this but in the end it was slightly disappointing. I think a lot depends on the family you stay with and whilst our family were perfectly friendly, unfortuantely our ´mama´was slightly reserved and neither of us felt particularly at home in her company. I think what may be the case, is that many new families have signed up for this ´homestay´ deal and see dollar signs before the cultural experience. Fair enough.

Nonetheless we had a really good time over the 24 hours on the island. I befriended a really cool donkey, lasted about 3 minutes of a football match against a rival tour company (due to being 4100m above sea level) and we both enjoyed a fantastic sunset atop mount ´Pacha Tata´ or ´father earth´. At about 19h00 that evening, after a tasty dinner, we were dressed up in traditional clothes and attended a fun dance in the local hall with all the other people and their ´mamas´. Again though, this was great, BUT our mama didn´t seem too interested and by the time the evening abruptly came to an end, she didn´t seemed to pleased when I cracked open another beer, which I eventually had to abandon to avoid any unhappiness.

Without doubt, and I won´t go into too much detail here, probably the funniest moment of the entire trip happened at about 2am that morning when both Robyn and I woke up in desperate need of the loo (no. 1) and we had to use the supplied bedpan. I doubt any of you have used a bedpan recently, but it is a heck of a lot more difficult than you would imagine, especially when you start getting the giggles and it´s almost filled to the brim!