点评:We visited these islands as part of our Belmond Andean Explorer train trip. It was a dream coming true for me as I had seen pictures of these villagers in an encyclopaedia when I was a child and I always wanted to travel to this part of the world to see them with my own bare eyes.
We embarked on Puno by a boat and it took us around 1.5-2 hours to get to the floating islands. The villagers had been informed about our visit so they were ready to greet us when we landed. We first have been informed about the history and general conditions of the islands. Then we were grouped by 3-4 people and each group visited one of the huts. To be honest, the conditions in which these people are living is beyond my comprehension with no running water, no sewage system, no soil to grow vegetables, no comfort whatsoever. They had chickens running here and there, some had brought a little bit of soil to grow some basic herbs, main livelihood is based on tourism. Each family had handicrafts they have prepared themselves in front of their own cabin and they were selling those and some families were also cooking local specialities. I recommend to take with you cash when going to the islands because you would definitely want to buy these beautiful, flamboyant and exotic hand sewed garments, they are not cheap (and they should not be given the circumstances in which they are prepared) but they are just gorgeous.
翻译:我们乘坐贝尔蒙德安第斯探索者号列车,其中就包括参观这些岛屿。这对我来说简直是梦想成真,因为我小时候在百科全书里就见过这些村民的照片,一直渴望能亲眼看看这片土地上的景象。
我们从普诺乘船出发,大约一个半到两个小时后到达了这些漂浮岛屿。村民们事先已经知道我们会来,所以他们热情地迎接我们。我们首先听取了关于岛屿历史和现状的介绍。之后,我们被分成三到四人一组,每组参观一间小屋。说实话,这些村民的生活条件简直超乎我的想象:没有自来水,没有污水处理系统,没有土壤种菜,没有任何舒适可言。他们养着鸡,有些人带了一小块土种些简单的草药,主要收入来源是旅游业。每户人家都在自家小屋前摆放着自己亲手制作的手工艺品出售,有些家庭还会烹制当地特色菜。我建议去岛上的时候带些现金,因为你肯定会想买那些精美绝伦、色彩艳丽、充满异域风情的手工缝制服装。它们价格不菲(考虑到制作环境,也理应如此),但确实美得令人惊艳。