Puno and Lago Titicaca (the Peruvian side)

With little knowledge and no expectations we boarded our boat at 8 which brought us an hour away to Los Uros (The Floating Islands). Quite simply, these were mindblowing, its difficult to describe the simplicity and practiciality of being able to, quite literally "build and island"...which is what these locals do.

Basically the islands are constructed of 1 meter of reed roots paved with 1 meter of reeds. You may think this would be unstable but they felt grand, even if Ronan was a little unnerved. We even got a lesson from a local on how to make one (see picture). Believe it or not, people actually live on these permanently. We were then treated to a reed boat journey (in appearance similar to a viking longboat) to a nearby island which even had a reed shop, cafe and hostel.

We then headed off to our homestay island of Amantani where we were greeted by a local parade. Having bumped into a friend from Galapagos and her friend, the four of us grouped together and headed to our homes for the night. We were surprised at the quality of our home (we felt we were cheating), the only thing to bring us to reality was avoiding the two donkeys infront of our outdoor toilet.

Quick lunch and then out the door for a hike up to another ancient temple where our previous treking really came in handy as altitude wasn´t a problem (even at 4,200m). After a beer in the Plaza and a dinner back in our new home we got dressed up for a local dance. It felt like Halloween, the outfits were fantastic fun, even if a little hot. Each Peruvian song really lasts a long time and so we were all knackered and headed home for a comfortable nights sleep.

By the way the weather was amazing (as you´ll see from our red noses in the photos!) and we have to say that the family we stayed with were absolutely brilliant. Life is so simple there, they were so welcoming, as were their 2 youngest children who were great fun to play with (Ro made a new best friend with Franklin over a game of football!).

Early rise for breakfast and a boat trip over to Taquille where we had another hike and a nice lunch overlooking the lake. View alone was worth the price of the lunch! Then a 3 hour boat back to Puno where we organised tomorrows adventure to Copacabana and the Bolivian side of Lago Titicaca.