(chill music) (speaking in Spanish) - [Kelly] On this episode of "The Original Fare", it's quinoa, potatoes, and tradition.

(upbeat brassy music) (waves splashing) - Our adventure begins collecting reeds, from which the more than 100 floating islands on Lake Titicaca build their buoyant basis.

- This is the reservation where we are going inside now.

A national reservation with 29,000 hectares of reeds.

There are over 100 floating islands, and in each island there are between five to ten families.

They use root of the reed to build the floating islands.

We're going into the reeds, and you will gonna jump into.

I'm going just to push you into the water.

That's it, I'm not gonna do anything else.

(laughs) - [Kelly] And this is my guide, Julio, born and raised right here.

- [Julio] I don't like to go into the lake because I love my life.

- [Kelly] Why did you say it was a good idea to get in?

- Yes, because it's nice to have that kind of experience.

- What, are there predators?

- Big fish like piranha.

Like, I don't know, piranhas like in Hollywood.

The only dangerous thing we have in the lake are the shrimps.

They could bite.

(laughs) - "La, la, la, let's get in the lake."

"It's so fun.

"The shrimp will bite you.

"Wear pants."

(Julio laughs) - Look at this is a pieces of floating root, here.

- Where?

- And they will gonna give you that to pull, and you're going to start punting these pieces of root.

What they do is to go seven kilometers into the reservation where there are a lot of floating roots like this.

Huge platforms.

- [Man] Wow.

- Yeah.

And from these huge platforms, they cut these roots in pieces ten meters long and five meters width like that.

- I'm getting a little bit nervous about this part, honestly.

- [Julio] Why?

- 'Cause I don't know, just cut reeds, and it's a bit thick down there.

I'm having trouble at...

I am never good at following directions, let's be honest.

- We jump from here to the middle.

(Kelly gasps) Not to the sides, the sides could sink very quickly.

- What?

So they're gonna show me how it's done.

Whoa!

That's what you mean by jumping in?

(speaking in Spanish) - [Julio] He's so deep, he's getting cold!

(laughs) Each fifteen days, they are adding a new layer on the island when it's rainy season.

And each month and a half, they are adding a new layer on the island when it's dry season.

- [Kelly] Where's the knife?

- [ Julio] Just jump, do it!

Just jump!

(Julio laughs) She's too scared!

She said 'oh my gosh!'

- Okay, what does he need me to do?

- [Julio] Pull it now.

Pull it.

Strong.

Quickly.

Quickly.

Yeah, like that.

(laughs) Do it, Kelly!

(Kelly shrieks) (Julio laughs) You have to feel it with your body, where is it?

That's good.

Yeah.

Keep going, keep going.

(South American pop music plays) (Kelly laughs) (Kelly shrieks) - [Kelly] The reeds are then packed tight to head to their island to dry.

They're also used to build the frame for their boats, and as food.

- This is the only part of the reed what they eat, when they start eating, they have to peel it like this, and that's why they call it 'banana from the Lake Titicaca'.

They never ever wash their teeth, but they have good teeth because they have banana from the Lake Titicaca, yeah?

Reuben said the family would like to have you on the island to give you good work.

- [Kelly] Yeah!

(Julio laughs) (gentle brassy music) - Go with them.

- Yeah, I'll help them.

Tell them I will work.

They're looking for potatoes?

Oh, these little ones, I see.

Can you ask her how long ago they were planted?

- In Octobre.

- October.

(Kelly laughs) (Kelly laughs) (Julio laughs) - [Kelly] He's getting such a laugh.

Julio is just having a ball over here.

Ah, look, yeah!

Don't they wear different hats if they're single or married?

- [Julio] Yeah, this is single.

That's single.

Look, potato.

Papa.

This is my favorite thing to do.

(woman laughs) Just touch the earth.

I'm still looking!

Now I'm dizzy.

- [Julio] Because you are forcing your body to work so hard.

And imagine how hard they are working.

If you start feeling dizzy after working a little bit, - [Kelly] A little bit.

then they stay here, days and days and days harvesting, and then they will gonna put it in the bags, and they will gonna carry themselves all the way to their house, that's why the donkeys over here.

- [Kelly] But when you grow up you're not affected by the altitude are you?

- [Julio] No, we got much better lungs than you.

(laughing) - [Kelly] Well, that's probably true.

I got pushed over here to fava beans 'cause they don't like my potato harvesting.

Which I find insulting 'cause I'm Irish.

I know everything about potatoes.

But we have fava beans, potatoes, and then this rows of quinoa here.

Quinoa, this is quinoa.

Would they hire me?

- [Julio] No, no.

- [Kelly] They won't hire me?

- [Julio] No.

(Kelly laughs) (donkey snorts) - [Kelly] Big goose.

(geese honking) - Kelly, buenos dias.

Mucho gusto.

These colors are beautiful.

Yeah, I can see the fields, the colors from the fields are gorgeous.

Once the wool is spun, the Aymara women make dyes from plants in the field, like lupine and quinoa.

Is it only married women who learn how to weave?

- [Julio] No, no, the single girls they know too.

- Single girls can do it too.

- If you ask to the couples in this community if they like daughters or sons, they will tell you-- - [Kelly] Daughters.

- "I would like boy."

- [Kelly] What?

- They said, they said they would like sons!

They don't like to get daughters, because to have a daughter is to do this: all their clothing.

You have your daughter, you have to make clothings.

Skirts, jackets, hat, and the hat it takes six, seven months to knitting one hat, not just one.

Because when they are little girl, they need one.

When they are little bit bigger, they need another one.

And it's not when they are little girl, they need one for daily, one for fiesta, one for the school, one for something else, and one more extra.

Just in case.

- And the mom has to do all that?

Because everybody gonna see you like a lazy mamma.

The boys, they take them to the market, and they purchase Chinese clothings-- - [Kelly] That's bologna!

- [Julio] and dress up them, and it's much easier.

- [Kelly] I'm not okay with that.

- [Julio] You're single now.

- I'm single now!

(Kelly laughs) Gracias!

Bonita?

Bonita?

(laughs) Okay, I'm ready.

Now I'm part of the family.

- [Julio] Yes, how they call this is 'huatia', yes?

- [Kelly] Huatia.

- [Julio] Huatia.

And they do this just one time per year.

It's one way to respect the Pachamamma, the mother earth.

- [Kelly] This is euhoto?

It smells amazing.

(woman speaking Aymara) - [Julio] Going out on their fields after harvesting the fresh potatoes, they start cooking on this way, in family in the fields.

- [Kelly] So I bet the whole neighborhood smells... - [Julio] Yeah.

(Kelly chuckles) - [Julio] Beaker full with your hands, yeah?

- [Kelly] No, we don't have to.

- [Julio] Kelly likes to cook!

- I love to do this stuff.

Are you kidding?

This is the most special kind of cooking I've ever gotten to do before.

(South American music) Slowly the hot rocks are broken down-- (laughs) sorry, bashed down-- as the potatoes continue to roast in the earth.

Oh, hot!

Caliente!

- [Julio] They put in the water and they turn it into that.

- [Kelly] Wow.

It's so good, delicioso.

I want mas.

(Julio laughs) This is my favorite way to eat: outside, on the floor, with your hands.

This is like, the best.

I want to take this back to my family.

(dreamy South American music) - [Kelly] And so here they're drawing the quinoa that we just saw them washing.

Meanwhile I have to have coca tea because I'm kind of dying from the altitude.

Or the clay sauce that I ate a little bit of, I don't know what's gonna kill me first.

It sucks.

It's so pretty here and I feel so sick, I feel totally wrecked.

(dog barking) (waves splashing) (laughter) - [Julio] This is a family house where we are gonna having lunch.

Alita is gonna show us how they are cooking quinoa.

(Kelly chuckling) I said "You have to explain me all how do you cook," I said to her, "Me?"

- [Kelly] She said no!

- [Julio] "Me?"

Do you see the green leaves?

Those are the quinoa leaves, I told you yesterday, do you remember?

- [Kelly] I do, I remember everything you say, Julio.

Ah!

Muy fuerte.

(Kelly chuckles) Ready?

Woo!

- [Julio] She is start adding the vegetables now into the soup, yeah?

- [Kelly] Once the onions, garlic, ginger, and vegetables have all cooked down, the quinoa, which has already been cooked in pumpkin, is added.

- [Kelly] Mmm, delicioso!

- [Aymara Woman] Gracias.

- [Kelly] Delicioso.

(Kelly laughs) - [Julio] Te gusta?

(girl speaks in Aymara) (chill South American music)