Blogs from Uros Island, Lake Titicaca , Puno, Peru, South America

After breakfast, and full of anticipation, we boarded the boat that would take us to the Uros Islands on Lake Titicaca. An excursion that did not disappoint. Although the inhabitants of these islands still can be said to live in fairly primitive conditions, they have become savvy enough to have a very good organization of how to distribute the tourists around their community. The individual islands' construction and maintenance are the concern and responsibility of all who live on that island, so I can see how they have used the same principles to divide what must be a big source of income amongst the entire community. Upon officially entering the Uros District, our boat captain was instructed about which island we could visit. It turned out to be the "Beautiful Rainbow" Island, home to four families. ... read more

Woke up this morning to a beautiful view of Lake Titicaca which we couldn't see last night. This morning we were picked up at 07:00 and Condor Travel rep went with us in a taxi to the port for our tour of the islands of Lake Titicaca. All the boats were tied together and we had to jump from one to another to get to ours. Only four other people were on the boat but it quickly filled to about 40 before we set off at 07:30. After just 30 minutes we arrived at the first Uros floating island and a lady who is head of the island with her husband gave us a demonstration of how they build the islands our of reeds. The guide interpreted for her. The housing is very cleverly made out ... read more

Today we began the last full day of touring at Lake Titicaca. This is the highest, navigable lake in the world. At over 12,000 feet the rarefied air can be taxing. Last night we were in Puno and I went to bed about 11:00 PM local time. I have not had any breathing problems at all so far but tonight, I woke up and felt that all the air had left the room. I really was huffing and yet no air filled my lungs. I have to say my heart was racing and I became a little concerned. I opened the hotel window to get some air, even though it only had 60% of the oxygen I expected, it helped. My heart stopped racing, I breathed much better, but now I could not fall asleep. It ... read more

Yesterday was really just a travel day, but wow! The sites you can see on the bus from Bolivia to Peru. The Bolivian countryside had some mountains, was this beautiful verdant green and was this strange mix of traditional and modern life. Traditional Bolivians worked the fields, perhaps tended sheep or their garden plots, while on the modern side of things there is a massive road building effort which had us in construction most of the way. We were required to first cross the lake via ferry, while our large bus was also ferried over separately. That was a fun experience and then further down the road we had the privilege of leaving Bolivia and walking across the border back to Peru where we find ourselves right now. So, on to today, a fantastic experience that ... read more

We finally left La Paz and headed to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. In Copacabana we walked past the cathedral and saw a religious procession where they make pretty designs on the ground using petals for the procession to travel over. Later in the day we bumped into some friends from Sucre so spent the afternoon watching the football world cup (a recurring theme) with them. Just before sunset we walked up cerro Calvario for great views over Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. The next morning we were up early to catch a boat to Isla de Sol (Sun Island). We bumped into another couple of friends from the ride and river trip in the line for the boat so spent the day with them. The boat ride was a couple of hours each way, ... read more