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From La Paz, we travelled on to Lake Titicaca, which is shared by Bolivia and Peru (although we were told to remember that Peru owns 60% by a Peruvian guy!) and is the highest navigable lake in the world, at 3800 meters above sea level. We stopped in the Bolivian town of Copacabana, just before the border, where we ate lunch on the way through to Peru. We enjoyed the local delicacy of Trout, fresh from the lake, whilst enjoying the stunning views out across the water.
We then said a sad farewell to Bolivia as we crossed the border into Peru, but before leaving our group had a few problems at the border control, apparently we should have been issued with a card when we'd entered from Brazil which no one got... but in true Bolivian style everything is negotiable and we were allowed out, for a small fee!!
We arrived at the Peruvian town of Puno, which is situated right on the edge of lake Titicaca. We stayed here for a night before taking a boat across the lake to the islands early the next morning. We took a ride in a tuk tuk around the town
which was fun, and brought back memories of our Asia travels, although the traffic was not quite as mad... just!! We took a boat trip onto the lake and visited a couple of the islands, the first was the island of Taquile. We got shown around the island by a guide who explained the local traditions and dress which was really interesting and then walked around the island to the town square. We had lunch, delicious trout again, with another gorgeous view of the lake and then made our way to another island, Amantani, where we stayed the night with a local Quechua family. We met our "mum" at the harbour and she walked us to the house, we tried to keep up with her pace but as it was mainly up hill, everyone was struggling to keep up at this altitude. All we could think of is how we'd cope with Machu Picchu as this was hard!! She was even knitting while walking too, just to add insult too injury!
After we settled into our bedroom, we met up again with the rest of the group and had a quick tour of the island, followed by another steep,
Us on Amantani....
..with our lovely handmade hats made by our "Mum". and hard, climb up to the highest point of the island to watch the sunset. It was tough going, but the spectacular sunset made it just worthwhile! After sunset, we made our way back to our new family for dinner. We ate with with our new ´mum´, her mother, father, sister and nephew, trying to speak a little Spanish to them all, but as Spanish is not their first language either it was a bit hard going. They were so friendly and kind though, and dinner was delicious. Afterwards, they dressed us up in traditional clothes and we all met up for a fiesta in the town hall... and a bit of mad traditional dancing! It was pretty hard work at this altitude!
We woke up in the morning and we were given a fantastic breakfast of pancakes and drunk coca tea, which is pretty good and helps with the altitude. We left the island after breakfast, saying a sad goodbye to our family and headed over to the Uros Islands. These are the floating islands that Lake Titicaca is famous for. The islands are made of reeds and every 6 months they have to add another layer to
keep the island floating. It was weird to walk around as it felt a bit like you were sinking, the islands were really thick so nothing to worry about really... One of the locals described how the islands were built and then we had a walk around the little island and shown around some of the houses... and then lead to the stalls where they were trying sell all of their products. Unfortunately the whole experience on the Uros islands was really a bit tacky and touristy, and felt like a huge set up... but we have never experienced anything quite like the artificial islands before and for that reason it was worth going. The other islands were amazing and staying the night with a family really helped give an insight into their lives.
From here we headed back to the mainland to Puno for the night, before heading out into the ancient Inca heartland of Cuzco, and soon the Inca Trail!!!!
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