Kayaking Mummies

Wake early pack our stuff into our day packs, check our extra luggage into the hotel storage and eat a nice little breakfast. Our guide arrives and we head out on some TukTuks to the pier. We stop right before the pier to buy some snacks and gifts for our home stay families (FYI buy a little more than you think). We get on our boat and are off to Llachon for kayaking! We arrive at the beach and I keep hearing a little voice repeating ''Ok, ok!'' I finally see a tiny little boy (3-4 yrs) in woolen ants, sweater, and wool hood waving at us to come to him. ''Ok, ok!'' He drags the paddles to us and starts telling us what to do in baby Spanish. We get all of the gear on (booties, waterproof shirts, life jackets, and kayak skirt) and we are OFF! It was so nice to cruise on the water and see the coast up close, it was so quiet. We stopped to look at a trout farm, paddled through reeds and chased ducks, Afterwards we were met at the docks by a little girl who lead us up to her house for lunch. It was a lovely little house, halfway up the hill overlooking the lake - we dined outside on steamed trout. Back to the boat and on to Ticonata Island where we would stay for the night. When we arrived it was quite, no one greeted us. We wandered around the grounds, we spotted a rowboat, coming across the water - our caretakers for the night, Lucian and his wife Ana. We walked down to the cliff side to while they rowed ashore. Once they arrived they told us the island was quiet because an important community member had passed away. We were shown our cozy cabin and our guide asked if we could go fish. After a rousing bout of skipping stones, we boarded the boat and dropped some fishing nets. Lucian, told us about some caves where they found mummies. Once on shore we went mummy hunting! We found the cave, but no mummies - they have all been moved to a museum on the island. On to the museum! We walked around the island, picking up some horrible burrs on the way, but munched on some Lima beans on the way. We meet Lucian at the museum to see the mummies, al were females and one infant. They were preserved in straw woven bags with ceramic/ clay plates and bowls as offerings for their next life. Then we hiked to the top of the island. We circumnavigated the island! Then headed down for a yummy dinner of rice, potato, tomato, fried cheese, and soup and a game of cards.