Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, is divided between Peru and Bolivia. When we found out that there was an opportunity to be hosted by the Aymara people on La Isla de Amantaní Island through Perú Hop, we immediately added it to our itinerary. This was a two-day, one-night tour that started and ended in the town of Puno and also included a look at the Uros floating Islands as well as La Isla de Taquile.
After departing Puno bright and early, we boated out to the Uros floating islands, which are made up of reeds. We spent around an hour on one of these man-made islands learning about the Uros people, their local craft, and way of life. The island’s size and shape are constantly fluctuating because the reeds that make up the island have to be replenished, sometimes as often as once a week.
From Uros, we had a three-hour boat ride to la Isla de Amantaní. When we arrived, our host, Aldolfo, was waiting at the beach, ready to guide us on the trek up to his beautiful home. Since the lake rests at 3,800 meters above sea level, many of us struggled on the small trek up to our home for the night. Aldolfo’s wife, Justa, had a delicious lunch of fresh Andean cheese, local potatoes, and quinoa soup ready for us when we arrived. It was so lovely to sit down with Justa and Aldolfo to learn about their life on the island. While Perú may be known to many as a meat-heavy country, the locals of Amantaní have a mostly vegetarian diet. This is because the island is self-sustaining, and the livestock that does reside on the island are used for farming and transportation purposes.
After lunch, we were given the option to hike one of the island peaks: Pachatata (Father Earth) or Pachamama (Mother Earth). We were told that the Pachatata hike was easier, while Pachamama had a better sunset view. We were thrilled that the harder hike was also named after Pachamama, so the decision of which route we would take was not a difficult one. The views from the top did not disappoint! After we made it back into the town square, we headed to the one bar on the island for some té macho, which is a mix of coca tea, muña tea, and, of course, pisco.
During a delicious dinner, we had the opportunity to learn more about how the Aymara have incorporated tourism as an industry on their island. The ten different communities on the island switch off on hosting tours, and they receive the profits from the nights that they host guests.
On the nights that a community is hosting tours, they throw a dance in their community hall. Justa offered to dress us in some of her traditional clothes, and then we headed to the dance where there was a live band, and we were all blown away by Aldolfo’s dance moves. We were not nearly as graceful as he was in our attempts to pick up the traditional dances, but we still had a great time.
The final morning, Justa cooked up some delicious pancakes and let us try our hand at spinning alpaca wool into yarn. This is something girls in their village learn as soon as they can walk. Justa told us we need a lot of improvement before we can be considered eligible wives. After some heartfelt goodbyes, we headed to our final stop of Taquile for a delicious lunch of more Andean cheese and fresh trout before heading back to Puno.