Puno is a small and quite boring town, tourists come here mainly to visit the famous lake Titicaca. It's like a giant market, where people continuously try to sell you knitwear, rugs, and a multitude of alpaca things. We arrived in the late afternoon and spent a night in a really nice hotel. We all suspected the hotel was so nice to make up for the lack of luxury awaiting us on the lake, where we were supposed to spend the night with local families.
Before visiting the peninsula where our "mamas and papas" live, we went to visit Taquille island. It was fascinating to see how the local comunity lives. There are 2000 people on the island and they all share duties such as cleaning the island or running a local restaurant. Besides that, they all knit, even men and little children! We had lunch there and were even taught a local dance. When they marry, the women give the men a belt (not a ring) which they have to make themselves, if they can't make it - they cant marry!! Hence the reason why everyone practices from an early age. The other strange thing is that women choose a husband, so the men have to wear hats and how they wear them tells the girls if they are single, looking for a girlfriend, not bothered or too busy!!! very funny.
Then we went to the peninsula to meet our families. They dressed us up in their traditional clothes and some of us even had to dig potatoes! Mat and me were spared, we just spent the afternoon drinking tea and chatting to the couple we were staying with and their 6-year-old son Cristian. Then we all had dinner together, before that we all had to help peel potatoes. The night was beautiful with the Moon as bright as a streetlight and stars that seemed really close. However, we could all feel the altitude and went to bed early.
This morning we had a traditional breakfast: potatoes, eggs and bread. Now we are back in Puno, we are leavingfor La Paz tomorrow early in the morning, so the next story will be from Bolivia.
