Lake Titicaca from the Peruvian Side

A fun fact about Lake Titicaca before I begin: it's the highest navegable lake in the world.

We got to Puno, Peru and checked into our hostel after walking a mile or so from the bus station. We had a really nice private room this time. We walked around for a little bit to check out the city and book our tour for the islands on Lake Titicaca. Puno is a really nice town: not too many tourists and just an overall relaxing feel to it.

The following morning we were picked up by the tour company to begin the day. We drove to the dock where we departed on a little boat to the Uros Islands. The Uros Islands are man made, floating islands. The people who live on the islands live a very simple life and make almost all of their money from tourism. I was skeptical because they called them floating islands, yet they seemed pretty stationary. I was proved wrong when they showed us how they tied them down so they didn't move. They basically put big stakes in the reeds they use to make them and then tie strings around them and then anchor them to the lake floor if they are in a shallow part, or use longer strings and tie them to rocks which they drop to the lake floor, no matter how deep.

After the floating islands it was a 2 1/2 hour boat ride to Taquile Island. Taquile is a natural island; not man made. The people on Taquile still stick to all their old traditions. An interesting fact is that only men on Taquile know how to knit and start learning at the age of five. Women only know how to weave. Their textiles are recognized by UNESCO, the United Nations Educations, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Based on the type of hats people where, you can tell if a person is married or single. There were some other explanations of their textiles but I don't remember them now. I also got to participate in some dancing, which I unfortunately don't have pictures of, but Maryam does. When she posts them I'll let you know.

After Puno, we crossed into Bolivia, to the lakeside pilgrimage town of Copacabana...

Check out pics from Puno here: Puno Pics