One Way United

Julian and I woke up the next morning extremely cold.  It took a while before the sun decided to rise over the hill and shine on our humble bluff so we stayed in our sleeping bags until it finally did.  We packed up and then hiked back up to the village on the ridge where Adam was staying.  We arrived to the village around 9:00, walked to the hostel, and waited for Adam to get up.  We sat at a picnic table and had a nice breakfast of Pringles.  Adam finally arose and felt much better than he had the previous day.  We sat around a little while longer and then went to find a restaurant to feed us an early lunch.  Since we were planning on sleeping outside that night at a random spot on the island, we wanted to make sure we had at least one real meal that day.  After our 2 course meal which consisted of soup and trout, we left to hike to the northern part of the island.

The trail we took followed the ridge of the island the whole way and we had to go up and down many hills.  After the long stenous day we had the day before, the hills felt like torture.  We of course were rewarded by the amazing views.  From every direction we could see the great expanse of the biggest lake in South America.  On the trail we ran into many tourists, locals, kids who wanted to take our snacks, sheep, and the occasional pig or llama.

After 3 hours of walking, we finally arrived to the most historic site on the island.  This consisted of 3 things: the rock of the puma, the sacrificial table, and ancient Incan ruins.  There was a guide there that gave brief explanations of all three.  The rock of the Puma is where the first Incan emperor is said to have risen from.  The rock, of course, looks like a Puma.  The sacrificial table is where the Incans used to sacrifice sheep, llamas, and even virgin women.  The guide showed us only one thing in the Incan ruins, a healing well.  The water in this well was said to be medicine that could cure any form of disase, injury, or psychological disorder.

After the guide was done giving us this short tour, Julian, who was intent on finding a sandy beach ever since we had first arrived on the island, sprinted down the hill toward what looked like a beautiful sandy beach.  Adam followed, leaving me alone to explore the ruins a little bit more.  The ruins were like a labrynth of stone with very tiny doors.  Every time I entered a new room I had to duck down almost to my knees and was barely skinny enough to jam through. 

After my ten minutes of quick exploration and picture taking, I joined Adam and Julian at the beach below.  The sun was almost about to disappear behind a huge hill so Julian and I got in our swimsuits and entered the freezing water.  After we had reached ¨the point of no return¨ we submerged ourselves and even swam a few strokes before getting out to dry in the sun while we had it.

As we were lying on the beach, a canoe arrived on the beach with a man and his small son.  We walked over and attempted to make conversation with the boy while the father was picking up trash.  Later the father joined us and we skipped stones a while with the boy and his father.  The fater was the best stone skipper I have ever seen as he could make stones skip like 10 times (not over exageratting).  After a bit, we let the two get back to their fishing.

We hiked back up the hill and soaked in the sun on some rocks for a while before leaving to hike up the bigger hill nearby to take in the sunset.  After struggling up our last hill of the day, we watched with a few sheep as the sun sank into the water.  Behind us, a pink hue could be seen behind the snow capped mountains on the other side of the lake.  After sitting in peace for a while, we hiked back down the hill where we intended on sleeping in the sacred ancient ruins below.

Before criticizing us for deciding to sleep in such a spot, hear us out.  There was no sign that is said is was forbidden or discouraged.  Our guide book said that you could sleep anywhere on the island away from villages or cultivated land.  Of course, we still had our doubts, you know it being a sacred ancient ruin and all, but that was the best spot around and had the added bonus of being sheltered by the wind.  The coolness factor of sleeping in an ancient Incan ruin also played into our thinking of course.

So, we set up our sleeping bags in a room that was at the furthest corner of the ruins, hoping to remain undected in case it really was against the rules or something.  We went to sleep almost right away because we wanted to get up early before the first tourists would arrive.  That night, sleeping in the ruins, turned out to be the strangest night I have ever experienced.  We slept in a room with high stone walls and no roof.  It was a full moon that night, giving off an eerie light that lit up our small room.  It was about 10:00 that night when we first heard the voices.

I awoke with my heart pumping, sinc we really did not want to be discovered.  The voices got closer and finally it became obvious that there were between two to four local men in the room directly next door to ours.  I heard one man talking a lot while the others listened and occasionally asked a question.  I believe they were talking in Spanish but they were speaking quiet enough that I could not tell exactly what they were talking about, only being able to pick out words every now and then.  They talked for at least an hour and I stayed awake, not wanting to fall asleep in fear of snoring and giving away our sleeping spot.

All of a sudden, a man started playing a flute.  As he was playing, a bird flew into our room, circled around for a while, and left.  I did not think much of that bird then but that bird would be very useful later.  After the solemn flute music was done playing, there was more talking.  Then, there was a very loud sound coming from the room next door.  It sounded like the loudest snore you have ever heard.  I thought one of the men had actually fallen asleep.  My heart was pumping fast because that was the most unnnatural, loudest snore ever.  Then my heart nearly lept out of my throat when I heard a deafening cat roar: MMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW.  What the crap!?  I began hearing the loud snore again followed by the deafening meow and this repeated itself at least two more times.  I began feeling very uneasy and now really, really, did not want them to find us because I was afraid they were loco and we were witnessing some top secret ceremony or something.  The night wore on and I heard a few more strange things.  There were weird whistling and breathing sounds coming from the room.  I would see light seep through our door.  I stayed awake through it all, and then, as they were getting ready to leave, a man looked through our tiny door and spotted us.

He went to get the guy who must have been in charge and then a man came into our room in a full Indian custume.  At this point, I had no idea what was going to happen.  Adam was pretending to be asleep, Julian might have actually been asleep somehow, and I was wide awake and the Indian dude knew it.  I sat up as the Indian dude started talking in Spanish about demons and spirits as I sat in a stunned silence.  He said he had felt our presence during the ceremony.  He then offered Julian (who was now up) and I Coco leaves which we of course accepted, wanting to stay on his good side.  He then preceded to make small talk with us, which, considering the circumstances, seemed very strange.  So, we told him where we were from and how old we were.  We asked him if it was ok that we were sleeping there and responded by saying no, that we had to have permission from mother earth or something.  I told him that we would leave if he wanted us to.  Right after I said that, the bird flew into our room again, and the indian dude was astonished.  He said ¨have you seen this bird.¨  We were like ¨umm…si.¨  Apparently this bird was a sign that mother earth or the spirits or something accepted us there.  He ended the conversation by telling us his name and to look for him tomorrow in the next village to get to know him better.  We told him yes and then he left by making strange hand gestures that looked like he was putting a spell on us or warding off evil spirits or something.  Julian and I just looked at each other and laughed at the ridiculousness of what just happened. 

The next day, we woke up early to leave before the tourists arrived.  Adam was already up when I woke up and apparently he had not slept once during the whole night.  We got our things together and noticed a weird symbol by the entrance of the door.  There was a long knife and a stick pointed toward our door.  I have no idea why it was there but I hypothesized that the man put it there to ward off evil spirits or something.  We had crackers for breakfast as we reminisced about the crazy night. 

We hiked down to the small village below around 9:30 and asked several people if they knew Roqechoque, the weird indian dude from the previous night.  Nobody knew who he was.  We finally gave up trying, ate at a restaurant, and chilled in the village until the next boat left at 1:30 to the northern part of the island.  We took a boat there, hiked up old incan steps, and then left to go back to Copocobana.  We rested in Copocobana for a day before taking a bus to Puno, Peru to see the legendary floating islands.  I was dissapointed that we never found the Indian dude again because of my curiosity of what exactly happened in the ruins that night.  But I guess some things are better left as a mystery.

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