Lake Titicaca

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After Arequipa I headed for Puno to see Lake Titicaca and the floating islands. The floating islands are the homes of the Uros which they make entirely from reeds. Traditionally the Uros made their living from fishing and nowadays they supplement this with tourism. We were shown their homes, which are also made from reeds, and how they made the island by tying the blocks of reeds together. I also go ride in one of their reed canoes.

It was then time to leave Peru and head into Bolivia. The border crossing was easy enough and I was soon in Copacobana - a small town on the edge of lake Titicaca. I met a couple of Austrailians and a couple of Belgiums on the bus and after a lunch of fresh trout at the market we headed down to the lake to chill out with a couple of beers. We also went on a pedalo on the lake though didn't get too far out in our 30 minutes - it was hard work especially at the high altitude!

The next day we headed over to the Isla del Sol where we hiked from the north to the south and then stayed the night. Whilst having dinner we watched the sunset to one side and a distant storm with spectacular lightning to the other. The next day a couple of us got the boat to Yampupata from where we walked along the side on the lake back to Copacabana where we again went for a trout lunch at the market (I basically lived on trout for 4 days Mmmm). Whilst walking we passed a village school as the children left for lunch - they found great amusement in the way we were walking, and had a fun time trying to match the steps of the tall dutch guy I was with. We where shadowed for about 15 min!

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