Up early this morning, we jumped in a chartered taxi down to the docks to explore more of the islands of Lake Titicaca. Today we were to head to two sites. Firstly the Uros Islands, a series of manmade floating reed islands on which the Uros people lived, and secondly the Isla Taquile, one of the bigger natural islands on the lake.

The Uros Islands were phenomenal. Made entirely from the reeds and roots found on the lake, an island is comprised entirely of roughly one metre of reed roots, which are naturally buoyant, cut into blocks and tied with woven reed fibre. On top of this, two metres of cut reeds are layered on top of each other to create a place to walk. Additional layers of reed are added fortnightly as those below are compressed and become water-logged. Over its 25 year lifespan, an island grows from 3 metres to roughly 10 metres of thickness before it is 'retired', sold as fertiliser on the mainland and a new island constructed. As well as providing a building material for the island, boats and houses, the reed is also a food source, known affectionately as 'Titicaca bananas', and tasting like a halfway point between sugarcane and packing pellets. These, complemented by fish caught in the lake, and vegetables sent from the mainland, along with hunted water food made up the majority of the islands cuisine. After being treated to an explanation and demonstration of all this, we were invited into the islands houses, single room reed dwellings modernised with solar powered lights and radios (its funny how some things catch on) before taking a tour of the community in one of the reed boats, a vaguely dragon shaped boat driven with a single oar fishtailing behind the boat. Following this we loaded back into our boat and sped off towards our next stop.

Isla Taquile was, geographically, quite similar to the Isla del Sol: steep sides, with low lying brush and eucalyptus trees (san koalas). Culturally though, it was very different, with not only agriculture, but also a big textile industry. Textiles also featured largely in the local culture, with hats and belts used to show marital and social status of the men, while various pompoms were used to show the same for women. Following an explanation of this, we were invited to join in a folk dance of theirs, not distinctive to English Circle Dances, before enjoying a quinoa and vegetable soup, followed by grilled, freshly caught, trout for dinner. Next we walked around the island before taking the back to Puno.

After a rest in the hostel and a bit more wandering through the town, we went for dinner and invited ourselves to join a table of a 56 year old journalist from Holland, Ken, his 18 year old stepson/aspiring doctor from Lima, David, and a 26 year old x-ray tech from Canada, Hannah. It's incredible who you meet! After a long dinner discussing everything from politics of science and university policy to travel tips, we headed back towards the hostel, until the sounds of 'Wonderwall' drew us back to the main plaza, where a free rock concert was taking place outside the church! Here we sat atop a sculpture for a while, listening to an odd mix of English and Spanish rock songs while a group of quite skilled skater kids rode beneath us. Eventually, with Lisa becoming an iceblock, we wandered back to the hostel before hopping on yet another bus, this one Cusco bound!