peru - lake titicaca islands

thats what youd look like if you lived on a floating island the size of isaacs restaurant!
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so we bid a fond farewell to arequipa and headed on towards the bolivian border – determined to finally leave peru behind us as we had planned to be in bolivia about a week at this stage already! but it was not to be as we heard really good feedback about a lake titicaca island trip to do from puno. so we set off from puno the next day by boat to visit the floating reed islands, and the islands of amantani and taquile.

the floating reed islands are a bit of a zoo as they are only a half hour boat ride from puno and their main economy is tourism. one of the most memorable things about them was how fat the women were as each island was too small to allow any exercise from walking around! each island is made up of about a 2m depth of reeds tied together and anchored to the bottom of the lake on each side. they have to keep adding fresh layers of reeds every 10 days or so as the bottom layers rot away under the surface of the lake. the islands are bouncy to walk on and everything, including houses and boats, are ingeniusly made from reeds – some with solar panels for electricity.

it was like being put into a corset - the cumberbands so tight they hurt!

all ready for the local shindig!
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after the floating islands we travelled to amantani island and went to stay with families. an anglo-aussie, nicky joined myself and anne to stay with our lovely family – luci marina (23), her hubby, 3 year old daughter and large extended family of various generations! the family group had their own animals and patch of land which the grandparents were busy working at with pickaxes while we were there.

after dinner, luci marina came in with the local costumes of huge unflattering skirts, braided cumberbands, and embroidered shirts and headwear for us to wear to the local shindig that night! it was like being put into a corset - the cumberbands so tight they hurt! it was a real novelty to see how these costumes were actually compiled with layers of underskirts etc. but the local dance was the most boring i´ve ever seen. think ring-a- ring-a-rosie without the fall down!

a dirty old local man going for a feel!
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next day we sadly said good bye to our family before heading to another island, taquile, and then back to puno to finally head to the bolivian border the next day!