Reportaje, viaje a Amantaní del 22 y 23 de Septiembre:

(Hi! Hola! Rimaykullayki! My name is Benjamin Galina, and I am an undergraduate at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. The following post begins a series explaining and exploring my time interning with All Ways Travel Agency on the Lake Titcaca island of Amantaní. Over the next three months, I will be helping to progress the “Lake Titicaca Literacy Project” by traveling weekly to the project’s first library in Santa Rosa, as well as developing a curriculum for guides of the Cultural Exchange Tour and performing a community survey to further understanding of the socio-economic realities of Santa Rosa. For more information about Amantaní, Lake Titicaca, or the Cultural Exchange Tour, I suggest you check out the All Ways Travel´s website at http://www.titicacaperu.com. Please, check back often for updates and anecdotes! )

I enjoyed my first visit to Amantaní in the typical North American way: as a tourist. I went along with All Ways Travel on a traditional 2-day tour of the Uros, Amantaní and Taquile. The weather was beautiful and the islands themselves--all 3 that I visited—stunning. I traveled with a fun, diverse group of about 20 people. Along with our guide, we came from 4 continents and over half-a-dozen countries.

After setting out from Puno bright and early, we made our way to the Uros, a series of man-made floating islands that sit in the bay of Puno. It was quite incredible to observe the lifestyle of the Aymara there. We stayed on the Uros until about 10 o´clock before we set sail for Amantaní.

Amantaní is situated a little over 3 hours from the Uros. I think everybody on my trip enjoyed chance to observe the majesty of Lake Titicaca and the wide variety of lake birds visible from the deck of our boat. We got to Amantaní at about 1:30 where a group of men and women from the community of Villa Orinojón greeted us. With the help of our guide and the president of tourism from Villa, as the town is known, we were split into mini-groups of 3 or 4 to walk to the homes of the families with whom we would be staying. My host, a young woman named Vacilia, provided a great 3-course lunch before our whole group met up again to climb to the summit of the island to watch the sun set over the lake. Let me warn you: after watching the sun set from Pachamama, the highest point on Amantaní and site of a sacred temple to the Earth Mother, you might never consider your place in the world the same way.

At night, after the sunset, everyone headed back to their hosts´ homes for a scrumptious dinner of stew, potatoes, rice, and chuño, a particularly interesting freeze-dried potato eaten since the time of Tiwanaku. (For more information, check out the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%C3%B1o). Following dinner, we were invited to don traditional dress, which, for men, consisted of an intricately embroided poncho and a brightly-colored hat. Appropriately-attired, we headed to a traditional dance at 9pm. Needless to say, when we finally got back to our homes, I was ready for some sleep.

The next morning, after breakfast (pancakes!), we boarded the boat to go to Taquile, a UN World Heritage Site because of its textiles. On the island of Taquile, we climbed to the main plaza, had a great lunch, and boarded our boat at about 12:30 to start back towards Puno. Overall, my experience as a traditional tourist was very eye-opening. Observing life so different from my own provoked a lot of personal reflection. Hopefully, in returning to the island weekly I will be permitted an even closer look at the culture of Amantaní. I can´t wait to begin the literacy project and visit Santa Rosa, the community where I will be spending the majority of the next three months!