From Cusco I caught a bus to Puno on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca. This is a giant inland lake at 3820m altitude. The highest navigatable lake in the world it was claimed.
Puno was pretty non descript place, but I joined a tour and caught a boat out to the floating islands of Uros. These were islands made of reeds, that were anchored into place. Everything was made of reeds, the island, the huts, the shops, the boats. They even eat the reeds. Legend has it that the escaped to the islands to avoid having to pay taxes to the invading Spanish. Today it was a very tacky tourist destination.
We got on the boat again, and motored out to another island of Amantani where we staked overnight with families. This really tested my spanish as my host could not speak a word of english. Lucky I was also staking with a Korean man who had studied spanish in Cusco for 6 weeks. We had a very boring dinner of boiled potatoes and corn, then went for a hike to the top of the mountain just before it got dark. Naturally we had to find our way back in the dark. That night the locals but on a show and played local music (did I tell you how much I can´t stand those peruvian pipes) and we all dressed up in their local costumes and had a dance. Not that exciting really.
The next day we went to another island where we did some more hikes, had lunch then got the boat back.
Next day I crossed into Bolivia and stayed at Copacabana on the Bolivian shores of Lake Titicaca. This place was beautiful, and much more relaxed than Peru. I stayed at a nice place on the hill overlooking the bay, sat in a hammock and read my book. I climed to the top of the hill to watch the sunset (4100m so not really a hill). Next day went for a 3 hour walk along the shore then caught a row boat to the Isla de Sol, had a look around there and caught the tourist boat back.
Copacababa was really nice, great food and Bolivia is half the price of Peru. I had soup and a whole trout, plus salad and fruits for $1.50. Another chillout day in the hammock before hitting the big smoke of La Paz.
