After a second night of not sleeping, we were picked up at the hotel and driven to the dock for our Lake Titicaca adventure. FIrst, we learned that it's actually pronounced Lake Titihaha, with a hard H, in Aymara language, and were taught an Aymara word "walyky" which is like Alhoha - it means hello, good bye, thank you, nice to meet you. Remember clicking on the pictures make them bigger.
 

 
After about a 45 minute boat ride we arrived at the Islas Uros - the famous floating islands. We were given a demonstration of how the islands are built. They harvest blocks of roots from the reeds that grown in abundance around there, tie them together with ropes and then start adding layers of reeds, first a layer one way then one perpendicular and so on. The island we were on was probaby about the size of my front yard and house, where 5 families lived. Somehow the 5 families are related and our host was the "mayor" of the island. It takes one year to build an island. Then they have to anchor it, or, as our host said, he might wake up in Bolivia and not have proper papers for that. Then they put down extra layers of reeds wherever a house or building is to be built so the buildings are raised to keep out the dampness. Every month they put down a new layer of reeds. If you dig down about 10" or so, you find waterlogged reeds. An island will last for 40 years, after that they build and move to a new island and use the old one for agriculture. When we got off onto the island, it was like walking on a sponge. At first it felt like we might step right through but then we got used to it. To our next door neighbors in Memphis - it's a lot like walking on our front lawns after the moles have had their fun!
   
 

 
 

The Indians used to live on land, but when the Spanish came and discovered silver, they made the Indians work in the mines, so they took to living on the lake, first in boats and then on the floating islands. Most of the islands we could see were pretty touristy, but there are islands where they still live simply and you can't really visit them. Our island and many that we went past had solar panels and TV. They also have some islands that only have schools on them, and the kids go to school, or go anywhere for that matter, on boats. There are about 85 islands in the area that we could see. For food they mainly eat fish and ducks, and quinoa, barley, and other things that grow on the islands. Once a week on Saturday they have a huge open air market in Puno near the port where the people come to buy meat, chicken and other things they can't raise on the islands.
 
 
The women make beautiful embroideries that take 3-4 weeks to complete and illustrate their lives. Of course I had to buy one. And the men make trinkets as well for the tourists. The women dress in brightly colored clothes - partly for the tourists, but the women around Puno really do dress similar to this, not for the tourists, it's just what they do.
 
 
 
 
 













 











































 

Our host invited us into his reed house. It is only one room with a sleeping corner - the mattress probably made from reeds as well, shelves and places to keep their clothing and personal things. That's about all they need, since they cook outside and pretty much spend their time outside when not sleeping. We also went for a ride in a reed boat. Nearly everything they have is built with reeds - their houses and their boats. Many of them also have regular speed boats with motors for getting around. I think the reed boats are mostly for tourists.  
 
 


 

 


After leaving the floating islands, we headed for Isla Taquile, a small island with a population of about 2000 Quechua speaking residents which sets them apart from most of the Aymara speaking islanders. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there. This is the part of the trip we didn't know about when we signed up. Oh, yes, we knew we would go to this island and have lunch, but what they didn't say is that we would have to climb up about 620 feet to get to the plaza where lunch was served. If we had known that we would have only signed up for the Uros Island tour.

So we got there and I looked at the trail and said there is no way I can do that. The guide on our boat said just walk up a little way and if you think you can't do it you can go back and wait on the boat. The way up was a series of ramps. So I walked up to about where that little white building is and knew I couldn't do it. I was already seeing spots, so our guide took me back to the boat where I napped while they climbed. 


Armando probably should have come back with me, but he decided to try the climb. Thanks to this great couple, Stefano and Monsaratt, a couple from France, he made it. They stayed with him the whole time, waited with him when he had to rest, and helped him back down the hill. He calls them his saviors. These first photos are of the climb up. These arches are everywhere along the trail. Also you can see how they terrace the land in order to plant things. Otherwise you could not raise crops on hills this steep.  
 
 
 



Finally after an hour of climbing they reached the plaza where they had lunch - fish and fries. They also were served another kind of herbal tea that's supposed to relieve altitute sickness. There were several tour groups up there. Our group was the Pumas. Titicaca means grey puma. If you turn a map of the lake upside down and use your imagination, it looks like a Puma about to catch a rabbit. Though without a good map, I don't know how the Indians knew that several hundred years ago.  
 
 
 







Then they started the climb down. They went down a different way - over 500 steps down. And Armando was tired from the climb up and oxygen deprived. If not for Stefano and Monseratt he would probably still be up on the island somewhere. It took about 45 minutes to climb back down.
 
 
 












































 
It was a 3 hour boat ride back to Puno, then a shuttle dropped us at our hotel. We went out for a light supper, bought some bottled oxygen, went to sleep at 9 p.m. and slept for 12 hours!!! I guess climbing Mt. Everest is crossed off our bucket list!