Lake Titicaca and the last of Peru

I have officially left Peru, for the first time this trip (I´ll be returning to fly out of Lima).  I spent my last few days in Puno, a small town on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  I have officially recovered from my Inca Trail trek, as I willingly climbed 645 steps (I counted them) to the Mirador Cóndor for a beautiful panoramic view of the city and lake.

The next day I headed out on a two day Island tour in Lake Titicaca.  It was really interesting...  The first day we took a boat out to the Uros, which are floating islands made of stands of reeds that are literally strapped together and anchored in place.  About 6-10 indiginous families live on such islands, and there are about 10 of them.  They are constantly building more of these because they only last for 30-45 years before they decompose.  Our next stop was a small natural island where we were going to stay the night with one of the indidinous families that lived there.  We were segregated into groups based on which house we would be staying at.  My group consisted of two Spanish women, two Brazilian women, and an Argentinian couple.  Everyone spoke spanish...except me.  It was a good opportunity to work on my listening skills, and the Spanish women were quite patient and beared with me as I stumbled through conversation.

The island village was a sleepy (sleepy sleepy, sleepy sleepy) little town that probably had a higher population of sheep than people.  The bathroom was little more than a hole in the ground in a shed at the rear of the property.  The accomodations were...rustic.  Candle lighting at night and wood fire cooking added to the feeling that I had just traveled 500 years back in time.  The locals threw a small fiesta for us turistas that night with traditional dress and dancing.  The next morning we set off for the largest of the natural islands on the Peruvian side, Tequíle.  A 45 minute hike brought us to the main square, which was swarming with little girls in traditional dress selling friendship bracelets for 1 sol (about 30 cents) and giving doleful stares and whining when you refused.  The return to Puno in the afternoon was spent tanning on the roof of the boat (very carefully, the sun is deceivingly strong at 3800m elevation) for the 3 hour boat ride back.  All in all it was a very interesting way to experience the indiginous culture on the world´s highest navigable lake.  I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia today around 5pm.  From what I´ve seen of the city, I´m pretty excited to spend the next few days wandering the neverending open air markets and hilly streets.