Huevos Frescos

This morning we woke up to the sounds of the family sheep baaaing, and the family donkey braaaying. I felt so much better, it was amazing (still not 100%, but a vast improvement). We played with the younger kids a bit, then had fried egg sandwiches (we had to wait for the chickens to lay the eggs) for breakfast before the girls walked us down the hill to the boat. Once everyone was on board (the 30 from yesterday, plus a few others), we set off to the nearby island called Isla Taquille. This is a much more touristy island than Isla Amantaní. We got off the boat, then walked for about 30 minutes up hill (thanks to feeling better, we were able to actually do this) to the town centre. We walked along a stone path, through farm plots and past homes and children going off to school. The path followed along the water up the hill, and then dropped down into the town.

The town centre looked like a huge asphalt playground. Not very exciting. There were a few boys running around, chasing after a rolling bike tyre and hitting it with half of a plastic water bottle (cut lengthwise) attached to a stick. Here we just sat there wondering why we were here, trying to fend off the kids selling woven bracelets. We bought some fruit and snacks at a stall, and Nige had a snack of a grilled alpaca and salsa sandwich. Our guide Gonzalo then told us that the boat would not be departing until 1 pm. And it was only 10:30. With nothing to do, we headed down the hill to the other side of the island where the boats were docked. And we sat on the boat playing cards until 1:00 when we finally took off. A pretty useless and boring morning.

It took about 3 hours to get back to Puno and the mainland. The lake was rough, and a lot of people were not feeling well at all. Luckily, we had no problems and just enjoyed the boat ride. Back in town, we had a hot shower at our hotel, found a cute hole-in-the-wall place for a delicous tamale snack with a cup of hot tea, then used the internet for a while before having some fantastic Chinese food for dinner. A nice treat for a change. It was pretty early by the time we got to bed, but we were exhausted.