The next day immediately after the Inca trail (13th Dec 2007) we left Cusco on the early morning bus to Lake Titikaka. It was a 8 hours bus ride to the nearest port, which is Puno. I slept most of the journey as we were half dead from the Inca Trail.
We arrived in Puno in the evening. Took a taxi to Inka Rest guesthouse and was welcomed by the really nice owner, a Uruguayan called Alberto. We booked our tour to visit the floating island of the Uros people for the next morning and also visitied a local island called Isla Taquile. I really liked the floating island. Its amazing that families of up to 10 familes, (around 30 people) live on each of them. The island last from 10 to 15 years and it takes the people 5 months to build one. Its normally around 17metres deep and new reed gets added to the island from time to time to keep it floating. It feels soft when we stepped on it. The Uros people are totally self sufficient and dont normally go on dry land. Their feet is not equipped to walk on hard surface we were told.
Only 2 of the island allows visitors, hence it looks a little touristy with its handicraft stands and etc... but its still an amazing sight to look at and its something that is not available anywhere in the world.
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Isla Taquile is a just a tiny island near Puno where the local villagers still live and dress the same way as their ancestors. Not much happens on the island, men and women are now busy building a new port, because more tourist wants to come and visit the island to see how they live and visit the local textile shops. They do weave the nicest garments in Peru apparently.
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