4 holidays, Part 1a (subsection A1.i)

hen I left univeristy in 1985, I was lucky enough to be able to visit parts of South America for four months. It was an organised tour with Encounter Overland, now known as Dragoman. We travelled in a large truck and camped in tents, except when we were staying in towns for a few days, when we would sleep in cheap hotels. Our route took us from Rio de Janeiro through Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile and Peru to finish in Ecuador. I also spent a couple of days in Caracas in Venezuela on the way there and again on the way back.

The highlight of the journey, and the principal reason I wanted to go to South America, was walking part of the Inca Trail to see Machu Piccu. That story, and many others, such as a friend needing oxygen on what was, until recently, the world's highest railway, will have to wait for another occasion. Instead, I'll tell you about the day that was at the same time the best and the worst of the whole journey. Today's episode is the bad part.

It was a long-awaited relief to get off the truck for a change. We knew little about what was planned, other than that we would spend the night on Amantani, an island in Lake Titicaca, which is the world's highest navigable lake. (There's a lot of height in Peru - something to do with the Andes. Getting dressed in the morning when camping at well below freezing point wasn't much fun.)

Having set sail from Puno, we soon stopped at one of the Uros islands. These islands are in a shallow part of the lake and are made of reeds, so that, although they're joined to the lake bed, they float in an initially-disconcerting way. The Indians were well-practiced in receiving tourists. Children immediately ran up to us demanding sweets, which were distributed by members of my group with condescending largesse while most of us stood in the tiny clearing in front of the huts taking photographs of women weaving and a mand making a reed boat.

We easily out-numbered them, and behaved like the abonimable tourists that we were. (Checking on the Internet while writing this post revealed that several companies are still offering this tour, so the horrible charade continues.)

OK, that's the bad part over. Next time, you'll hear about the happier part.