"Home"-stay

After some Pisco sours we left Cuzco on Saturday, eager to get to know the Peruvian culture better. Since we are on our way to Bolivia, we found out that we could stop in Puno and explore the Peruvian islands of Lake Titicaca: Uros, Amantani and Taquile. We had heard that homestay was a good way to get to know Peruvian way of living, and that Amantani was the place! The idea of a homestay is to live together with the family, have meals together, and to see the everyday life of a family living on a Peruvian island.

Independent travellers as we are, we went to the port in Puno, and decided to go by boat to all the three islands, and find a family on Amantani and spend the night there. Rumours said that people would be waiting for us, happy to let us stay in their house and share their life story with us. Well, we sholdn't trust rumours...that`s for sure!

Disappointment #1: When we arrived on the island, there was no warm welcome. Actually nobody was there.
But hey, the captain was "nice" and helped us to find a place (that turned out to be his own family's house).

After a small hike, with heavy backpacks (not at ALL prepared for more hiking at this time) we arrived at the house. The room was ok (actually better than what we expected - after all this is an old-fashioned island).

Disappointment #2: Hungry and full of hope in our eyes, we went down for lunch. But where is the family?
Three bowls of soup, three plates with rice and fried cheese and three teacups waited for us in a room outside the house. Hmm, ok, maybe the family already had lunch. We will probably meet them for dinner, we thought.

Disappointment #3: We had read about inca ruins, and even if nothing can be compared to Machu Picchu, we didn't want to miss a walk to the top of the island. But where are the ruins? Are they the fences around the fields? And were are all the other tourists? This is after all one of the highlights of Amantani. Look, there is a guy waving at us! This was neither a local or a tourist, but a weird Canadian that lived alone in a tent on the top of the island. All he wanted from us was an English book. The view was good though...

On our way down we hooked up with two guys from York and had a beer at the only (open) café on the island. The sun was shining, the beer was good and we were having a jolly good time. Hm.. Maybe Amantani isn't too bad after all!?


Disappointment #4: Back in the house getting dressed for dinner at 7 pm, a knock on the door and we jumped in excitement for the evening to come. Instead of invitation to join the familiy for dinner, we met a tray with three bowls of soup in the door. What!? Dinner in the bedroom!? Speechless we just watched the master of the house bringing in the three more plates with rice and vegetables (left overs from lunch). Door was slammed in our faces ...and we were left with silence. The food was cold and tasteless. Need we say more?

Disappointment #5: Since the family was not interested in our company and it was still early in the evening, we decided to go out for a beer. We also heard that there was supposed to be a Peña party (traditional dance show) by the main square and asked the lady in the house. She told us that there was no party due to few tourists. We decided to check out the main square anyway. Maybe the local pub was still open and we would reunite with our British friends? Full of excitement and hope (again) we marched to the main square. We met noone on the way, noone at the square, the pub was closed - the only thing we found was.. complete silence... We surrendered and went to bed. At 9 pm.

Disappointment #6: The next day we found that the Peña party actually had taken place.

Disappointment #7: Breakfast consisted of 20 slices of bread (both fried and non fried)... and that was it. No butter, no spread, no eggs, no ham, no cheese.. no nothing. After asking a couple of times we got a tiny little bit of jam. Enough to one slice...

Conclusion: we still don't know anything about the Peruvian way of living. The only thing we do know: don't go live with the captain!