Uros, Amantani, Tequile - Lago Titicaca

Puno is situated on the lake Titicaca. The city itself doesn't have so much to offer, but walking in the street market or the port can be pleasant. I booked for a 2 days trip in the islands of the lake : Uros island, Amantani and Tequile. These was absolutely the worst trip I did here in Perù. 

First of all when I arrived to the port, the captain of the boat wanted to postpone the departure because, beside me, only other two people booked the trip with him. One of the women got so upset that at the end, the boat left on time. But the captain kept telling us how much money he was losing because of us. We arrived to the Uros islands, the floating islands, but we got to the most little one where beside a bar there was nothing to see. We complained so much that at the end he brought us to another island, where the owner explained us how they built the island and how they live. The base of the island is a mixture of roots and soil and on top of it they just put some dry leaves. Then they showed us some of their art craft, that of course they wanted to sell us. We didn't buy anything and the captain got upset with us telling us that we MUST buy something. Then he promised to take us to another island and he took us again to the first island, because he wanted to drink a tea. I got very upset and I told him to leave us in another island while he was drinking tea. He took us to the island next to the one with the bar, but before we even got down from the boat, he told with a bad tone to the women of the island that we were not going to buy anything there. In less than 30 minutes we left the Uros islands with a really bad feeling. We didn't have the opportunity to really visit the islands and to understand how people leave there. The islands are very small, one next to the other ones, but unfortunately they became too touristic and the place probably lost its original magic. 

We navigated for other 2 hours to get the other two tourists to the island where they were going to spend the night. Now I'm alone in a boat that can carry 30 passengers and again the captain tried to make me feel guilty about the money he's loosing because of me. Before getting to Amantani, he decided that he would come back to Puno on the same day and that I would come back the day after with another boat. This wasn't very fair, but I was very happy not to see him again. When I got to Amantani I met the woman that had to give me hospitality in her house. One particular thing of this trip was in fact spending one night at a local family's house. When we arrived to her house, I realised that this was just a normal hospedaje. She cooked lunch, but besides the soup I couldn't eat anything else : everything was too salty and oily. Then she showed me her works (that of course she wanted me to buy). We walked to the Plaza and during this walk I realised that there was nothing to see on this island, really nothing . Everyday at 8pm in the Plaza they organise an event with music and dances for the tourists, but it was to cold and windy, so I just skip the event. I started also to feel bad, but I don't know if it was because of the food or the altitude (3800m). The morning after, I took another boat to get to Tequile. Now, i don't know who gave the patent to this captain, but this was absolutely the worst boat trip I've ever been. Waves were very high, but for sure the captain could navigate better. We jumped from a wave to another one, and many times I had this feeling that we couldn't make it. I put all my important stuff in a plastic bag, just in case, and I tried to calculate the distance from the coast. 15 km....I can do it... 10km...even better. But fortunately this wasn't necessary and we reached the port by boat . We had 3 hours to visit the island before going back to Puno. My stomach was hurting me so much, that I preferred waiting 3 hours at the port, I simply couldn't move. The trip back to Puno went much better, but when I arrived I didn't even have the energy to go to complain about the trip with the agency. I walked to my hostel and then I bought the bus ticket to Copacabana, a little city on the bolivian side of the lake Titicaca. 

Uros islands 

Amantani