Amantani Island

From the Uros Island we boated out to the Amantani Island, which was approximately 35 km. from the Uros.

Located on the Titicaca Lake, it possesses 15 square/km of area and 3,663 inhabitants (1988). Its population is Aimara and is dedicated basically to the agriculture concentrated on the town of Amantani.

Here, we hiked up stone walkways to meet with the indigenious family we were going to spend the rest of the day, sleep overnight and leave right after breakfast the next morning.




The family we stayed with were a couple in their sixities. Walking to their house, with our overnight-day packs proved gruelling because of the altitude and the complex stone pathways going up and up and up and up and up.
Elhandro showed us our accommodations for the day and night. These accomodations included an outdoor, narrow wooden staircase which took us to a room, without electricity, and only a candle. The walls were lined with blue camping tarps, there was a table, a wooden bench and one chair. The bathroom was back down the wooden stairs , around behind the building up a little path around another corner (duck your head). The bathroom was a clean square building with a hole in the middle of the floor. Elhandro did not show us any water facilities.

To go to lunch, we went back down the wooden stairs, down the path, through the gate, passed the sheep, through the courtyard, ducking into a small smoke-filled kitchen.

Inside the kitchen Elhandro´s wife, Wilma was cooking lunch on a very unique stone stove that had four various-sized holes where clay pots fitted into. The stove was heated by putting small stickes underneath the holes. We sat on tree stumps and ate our lunch. The couple did not speak Spanish, only Quechua which made communication very difficult, but we managed somehow.