When we'd made as much of a recovery as we could, we booked a bus to Puno so that we could visit lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. We took our last bus trip with Cruz del Sur, as after lake Titicaca, we are off to Bolivia on the other side of the lake, and there are no Cruz del Sur buses in Bolivia unfortunately. The bus journey went well right up until we were close to Puno, however, when we were near a place called Juliaca, there was a massive hold up. There was a huge traffic jam, and the local police were trying to direct the cars, but they were doing a pretty bad job. We got stuck there for nearly a couple of hours, which was really annoying. Eventually, when we got moving, it was only another half an hour until we reached Puno. People have said that Puno isn't that nice, but we have to stay here if we want to visit the floating reed islands, which you have to do from the Puno side. We still managed to arrive at the hostel in the daytime, at around 4pm. We were tired and didn't feel like wandering around that much, so we went for a quick walk to find the nearest place to eat and just had dinner in a local restaurant. When we returned we booked the tour of the floating reed island for tomorrow.

In the morning, we had to be up for the tour at 6am, so when we woke up John had still been feeling ill, and didn't think he could make it on the tour . So I went downstairs to let the receptionist know that we couldn't go on the tour. I apologised to her, but she was actually really understanding. I said we'd like to do the tour tomorrow instead, depending on how John is feeling then, so said we'll see how it goes tomorrow. She agreed that would be fine, so we'll make a decision then. When that was dealt with, as we were so tired from not having slept well, we both went back to sleep for a few hours. We didn't do much today, but in the afternoon we were hungry, so we went to the supermarket to get some food to bring back to the hostel to eat. John managed to find a game of football on the tv in our room, which was handy for him, and kept him quiet for a few hours. Meanwhile, I was trying to catch up on the blog. There's always so many entries to catch up on now as I am always far behind, but they need to be done anyhow. We originally booked a tour to visit the floating reed islands, and also Taquille island, however, tomorrow, I asked if we could just visit the floating islands as that was only for a few hours, whereas, the other tour was for nearly a full day . At least that way, if John still didn't feel too good the next day, we'd only be there for a few hours. To be honest, I hadn't heard of Taquille island anyway, so as long as I get to see the floating reed islands, I'll be happy. So we got an early night to try and make sure we got a good nights sleep.

Floating reed islands

The good thing about booking the floating reed islands tour only was that we didn't have to be up at 6am. Our tour were picking us up from the hostel at 9am, so we just got up a bit earlier so we could have some breakfast before being picked up. John felt ok, but still didn't feel great, but he wanted to do the tour anyway as this was our last full day here. We had breakfast, and then a guy picked us up and took us to the port. We were the last ones to board the boat, but we still got a seat at the front of it. We had a guide on board who speaks a little English, and also Spanish, so he said he will speak both languages for the tour. We set sailing to the Uros Islands. These islands are a collection of man-made Islands, which have been made out of reeds by the local Peruvian people who live on the Islands. It only took the boat about 15 minutes to get there. When we arrived at the sign saying welcome to the Uros Islands, the boat was greeted by a local man and woman dressed in traditional clothing. The women wear black bowler type hats, a colorful skirt and waistcoat and a long sleeve top underneath, they also plait their long black hair into two long plaits and part it in the middle . It's a distinguished look and I like how the locals dress. The mens clothing wasn't as good as the women's in my opinion! We saw our first sighting of a house made of reeds, we'll not a house as such, but a small hut of reeds, this is like the toll entrance into the reed islands. They are controlled by local people, and any boat that enters the island, has to pass through their control here first.

Once we'd passed through their entry port, it was like we sailed into another world. It was nothing like I had ever seen before. There were so many tiny islands, and upon each were mini houses made of reeds, just floating on lake Titicaca. It was surreal, but I am glad I came here to experience this little world. There are around 60 Islands, and upon each island lives a family, a small community amongst all islanders is the way of life here. As we sailed past each island, every little reed house was made slightly differently. They were all a single level hut, some were bigger than others . Some even had the name of their tiny island and a welcome sign. It was so interesting to just see these houses floating in a lake. Well to say literally floating is wrong, as they are not actually floating, they are tied down with anchors, or they would actually float away down the lake!

We must have passed quite a few islands and there were also some boats made out of reeds. The local way of life is that these people are fishermen and they live off the land, well, water so to speak. They source their food from the lake. Some of the boats we passed were spectacular, and they looked like little pirate ships! Our boat docked into a small island, with a few reed houses on it. We pulled up outside the island there were some local women there to greet us, again all dressed in vibrant colours. They also helped us off the boat and onto their island. I am glad we get to set foot on their island, but it can't but help feel a bit sorry for them, as this has become the norm, showing tourists around their islands and their homes. They can't just get on and lead normal lives. So we stepped off and onto some really soft reeds, you would think that it wasn't strong enough to supports everyone's weight. There was a boat of reeds upside down, which was being used as a seating area. Our tour guide from the boat stood up and gave a talk to us about the islanders and about island life. We got introduced to the leader of the tribe from this island . Each island has a leader, and it's usually the head male of the family. While our guide was showing us how they build the islands, the tribe leader was demonstrating this by building a mini house made from reeds. They have to change the reeds every so often as they won't last forever, but it was fascinating to be shown the process. There was actually a ginger cat on the island, which surprised me, but I bet it's happy getting fed fresh fish all the time! It came up to me when I called it and sat by me while the talk was going on.

Dressed to impress

After we'd had the talk, we were shown into one family members house. A group of around 4 people each went into different houses on this tiny island. One lady grabbed me by the hand and told us to come with her. Myself, John and another couple followed her into her home. This was the fascinating bit for me, I was dying to know what these little houses looked like from the inside. When we went in, the house was just as small on the inside as it looked on the outside . There was a mattress on the floor with some blankets around, a chair, they even had a television somehow, so they have some electricity, although it might have been solar powered. Their clothes are hanging up on the walls, I noticed the clothing and then the lady suggested that we try her clothes on! I was not expecting that, but I thought it would be fun to dress up like a Peruvian woman so I didn't hesitate. She dressed the other lady and myself in her clothes. These women are slightly large and rounded, so I thought her skirt would be far too big for me! But it was a drawstring, so it could be pulled tighter, so it did fit over my other clothes. I also had her hat, and a colorful waistcoat on over my coat, which looked strange, but still it was a laugh! Then once we had the clothes on, I said can we all get a picture together, so we did. Then she suggested that the boys also try on her husbands clothes, so they put on these waistcoats over their clothes and a hat too. John looked the part... I got a picture of us both dressed up like the locals. I really didn't expect her to invite us into her home and get us dressed up like them, but she probably enjoyed it. Afterwards, we thanked her for showing us around and she proceeded to show us the local handicrafts that she makes and tried to get us to buy some cushion covers. I felt bad, but we are poor travellers, we have no space to carry things or money to buy stuff like that. It was lovely to see inside the house and get a feel for how these people live .

When everyone had been shown around the houses, our guide said did we want to take a ride in their reed boats. We said yes, but then realised that we had to pay, but we still went anyway as it was cheap. So the driver was rowing his boat that he made himself. The boats are rather grand, and the fact that they are hand crafted makes them even more impressive. We sat upstairs so we could get good views of the other islands over the lake. We met an English couple who are also travelling the same route as us, but the funny thing was, they booked all of their trips and excursions from home, before they even left for travelling. They said as they're on a tight time schedule, that they had to do it that way. I thought it would be impossible to do that, as plans can change, but each to their own. We chatted while taking in the views around the lake. The boat ride lasted for about 15 minutes, then we joined the rest of the people from our boat, who had taken a free ride to the same place we got dropped off at! Us tourists had been taken for a ride alright! Never mind it was a nice little trip on the boat. We stopped on another island, but this one wasn't as nice, it was set up purely for tourism as a cafe and souvenir shop. It was lovely to experience these islands on lake Titicaca, but people say it's best to see both the Peruvian and the Bolivian side, so next stop will be Copacabana.