17th - decided to have a slow day after the whole day travelling yesterday - so we walked down to Puno harbour (a very inauspicious place) and were persuaded by Benito to take a boat to the Yavara steamship on the other side of the bay. A very pleasant trip for our first real view of Lake Titicaca and The Yavara was a delight. Originally from a foundry in Birmingham, it was shipped in over 2,400 boxes to Arica and then over the Andes by mule in 1862, the journey alone taking 6 years. On arriving in Puno it was built as a gunship for the Peruvian navy for use on Lake Titicaca. Anyway, loads of history, had a tour of the whole ship - being rebuilt as funds are available.

Back in Puno the kids went on some pedaloes - a bizarre sight given the state of the surroundings - and a prolonged experience as weeds and shallows meant the rescue pedalo had to be launched to refloat Derry in the pelican and all 3 took a considerable amount of time to circumnavigate the pond! After all this we walked the harbour front and got a couple of tricycle taxis back to Plaza des Armes - Alan made the best choice in taxi driver as he was at least capable of cycling him and Siena - the old gent with few teeth who drove the 2nd tricycle, struggled so much with the exertion required at this altitude that I ended up getting out and running alongside - this being preferable than having to deal with a potential heart attack.

18th - Uros Islands and Tequile. Another early start to get the Jumbo tours boat at 7am. Our first stop was the Uros Islands the 40 or so floating reed islands in the Bay of Puno. A flotilla of small (20 passenger) boats had left Puno at 7 and each had their own prearranged island- Amaneres (I think) being the name of ours. Herman our tour guide gave a good lesson in how the islands were built, showed us the native fish in the lake,gave us each a piece of the reeds to eat and by dropping a stone on a piece of rope through hole in the middle of the reeds we were standing on, demonstrated that the bottom of the lake was 15m beneath us. We had the obligatory photo sessions and souvenir opportunities before we left on a reed boat for a small tour to the next island.

Then we had 90 mins more on the boat to reach the island of Taquile. We passed many more reed beds and left the relative calm of the Bay when we reached the main part of the lake.I'm really glad we made the trip as only when you get out of the Bay do you get to appreciate the beauty and size of the lake. This was the first time back on a boat since the Galapagos and it was strange not to be searching for sea lions, or sharks, or birds.

Once on Taquile we had to persuade the kids to climb the steps to the table laid for lunch on a grassy terrace overlooking the lake. We had quinoa soup and trout, while on the grass sat the men of the family we were visiting, knitting. On this island the men knit and the women weave. The men knit their own hats, which the majority wear, and the hats denote their marital status - half of the hat white if they are single (the knit so fine that it takes a month to knit) and red with small patterns if married (these take 3 months to knit!). After lunch we had a dance then walked up to the main square and down the 500 steps to the harbour on the other side of the island where our boat was waiting. The islanders were very shy compared to the people we had met so far in Peru and the life on the island seems to be just as it has been for several decades - apart from the tourists!!!

From there our next stop was back to Puno - for some reason the boats travel really slowly, and it took an age - about 3 hours - to get back to the harbour. Perhaps it's to make sure you feel like you've had a full day. We struggled to find a decent restaurant - I'm sure there are lots of good food places but we always try to find the ones which try a little harder, or are more contemporary, as well as using the traditional/typical Andean restaurants. Puno has been a bit of a challenge, but the one we found tonight was better than the others. We had a really nice evening too - the kids are starting to get along well, (there, I've doubtless jinxed the rest of the trip now!) one month in and we're all still talking to each other! We might even like each other a bit more too!!