Lake Titicaca Peru

 

Don't be fooled. I am still without my handy digital (replaced that on the black market in La Paz), But I did bring my massive EOS 1 and finally found some film. *Note to self; don't get film developed in Bolivia. Icky colours eh? *Note to you; when on Lake Titicaca do a home stay. To this day it remains the most bizarre day of my life.

Alana's Checklist for planning The Most Bizarre Day of Your Life

• Board a boat on the highest Navigable Lake in the world: check 
• Dock at an inhabited floating island made of reeds: check
• Mail a postcard home from the post office on the island: check
• Board a double decker boat also made entirely of reeds: check
• Go for a tour than re-board non reed boat and head to a solid island for homestay: check
• Have new Peru mom greet you right off the boat and learn that she only speaks Quechua, which you foolishly forgot to brush up on: check
• Shown to new home and new bedroom locked with a rusty padlock: check
• Sit in aforementioned room for 2 hours wondering what you are supposed to be doing: check
• Finally retrieved for dinner which is had in a shack with dirt for the floor: check
• Eat possibly the worst meal of your life and have no idea what it is and no idea how to ask (stupid useless spanish phrase book): check
• Realize it may have been a sibling of the guinea pigs you just noticed running around your feet: check
• Watch mom breast feed a toddler while you try to choke down what appears to be a rubber egg: check
• Brought back up to room to wait for another bewildering hour: check
• Mom finally comes up with her arms full of traditional clothing you will be wearing at a party thrown in your honor: check
• Have to have mom tuck some of your parts into the 2 blouses and 3 skirts and a scarfy thing: check
• Pinkie swear with your roomies never to make public any photos taken of this night: check
• Dance like a mad person and drink like a sailor in a large room that smells like pee: check
• Actually don one of those geeky head-lamps so you will have your hands free to deal with your 3 skirts while you try to keep your balance squatting over a hole in an outhouse wondering if there isn't something to be said for peeing in the corner of the dance hall: check 
• Hear about all the amazing food the other moms made for their quests: check
• Watch your mom out party and out dance all the other moms: check
• Think about trying to convey to your mom that her cooking may improve if she spent more time in the kitchen and less time on the dance floor: check
• Quickly realize that she is pretty damn cool just the way she is, shitty cooking and all: check
• Taken back home long after everyone else's mom took them home, a little drunk from much beer: check
• Watch as mom pulls out plastic bowls from under the beds: check
• Then watch her hike up her skirts and squat over the bowl: check
• Take a minute to realize that she is telling you that this is where you pee at night: check
• Watch in horror as she locks the gate leading out to the outhouse: check
• Immediately regret that 'I guess one more can't hurt' beer: check
• Crawl onto thin hay mattress for what is sure to be an agonizing sleepless night: check
• Get woken up by roommates who are going to attempt a bathroom break out: check
• In an attempt to be stealthy crash into everything you can and wonder 'where the hell did that empty bag of chips with the bells and tin cans around it come from?': check
• Contemplate climbing over wall that has shards of glass glued to the top because the deep gashes seem like a more pleasant experience than pissing in a bowl in front of practical strangers: check
• Grateful (and a little worried) for the lock picking skills of new best friend (who you will be watching closely for the duration of your time together, shady bugger): check
• Have the best damn pee of your life: check
• Try to stealth it back in but manage to find the jar of marbles on a wobbly table: check
• Sleep rather soundly the rest of the night: check
• Awake to the stories of 2 other breakouts in the night: check
• Head down to surprisingly edible breakfast: check
• Say goodbye to mom: check
• Never once see man of the house: check
• Board boat and watch a truly great place fade in the distance: sadly check