Living Like Locals On Lake Titicaca

After yet another epic bus ride South, our little tour group of four arrived in Puno, a lake side city of about 120 000 people. We spent the afternoon exploring the Spanish influenced central square (a feature that every major city in Peru shares), doing a little gift shopping and finally settling down for a delicious dinner followed by some impressive cocktails. My cocktail of choice was 'Iceberg de fresa sour', a strawberry daiquiri made with nitrogen and the local brandy Pisco, while Zac opted for one with tiny frozen Blue Curaçao balls. Both were fizzled with liquid nitrogen and I got a good laugh out of the bar tenders when I nearly froze my tongue taking a sip while the nitrogen was still smoking...

Next on the list were the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, a slow boat ride out led us to one of the man-made reed islands called Uros. I have to give the people of these islands credit, because replacing your floor every 15 days in order not to sink shows a lot of commitment! Learning about structure of the island was interesting, but I had to step back out of the crowd of tourists and take a break, imposing on these people didn't feel right, most of our larger tourist group we were a part of acted as though they were at a zoo, peeking into bedrooms and snapping a photo every 12 seconds. I'm sure the families benefit from the tourism as a source of income, but for me the highlight was playing catch with a little girl behind one of the reed houses, it didn't matter that we couldn't understand a word we said to each other, it was just a good laugh. Soon other kids joined and before long Zac and I were being tackled by these kids who were getting more and more competitive at this simple game of throwing around a toy koala Zac had given them! It reminded me so much of my time in Cambodia, and made me miss it- anyway definitely another sneaky highlight of my trip so far :)

Saying goodbye to my little friend, needed a seat after "koala koala" 

Doing something a little different, to make the other tourists stare 

Half an hour or so of 'catch the koala koala' and Zac and I were absolutely buggered- high altitude is a funny thing... Anyway, it was time to re-board the boat for a short ride to the peninsula where Gran, Zac, Jules (or Macarina, as Giscard has nicknamed her) and I would get to experience or own traditional Peruvian home stay in the Llachon community!

Our home stay family were so lovely, we ate some yummy homestyle meals, and even helped prepare our dinner! But before dinner we participated in a few 'local activities', or so Giscard called them... They involved sifting dirt to make a base for a mud-like concrete, picking up rocks, ploughing in the veggie garden, and weeding! Bit of a reality check when we heard that the tiny old man instructing us does what we did for 40 minutes, all day (and when I say all day I mean a 4am start and a 6pm finish!!!). We ended the afternoon on a more fun note, playing a couple matches of volleyball and soccer... The locals pretty much dominated the foreigners in both sports, although Zac carried our team fairly well!

Our host family and all of us in traditional clothing

Coolest kids on the Llachon peninsula 

Yep, handstands and tricks are definitely becoming our thing!

It was a little sad to say goodbye to that beautiful family, despite the fact we only stayed one night. But we are back in Puno after riding home in a local bus... Which, we learnt, means squeezing 22 people in a 14 seater minivan!

Tonight marks our second and last night night in Puno, Giscard is taking us to a show for dinner and in the morning we take our LAST bus to Cusco (I AM SO HAPPY TO END OUR TRAIL OF LONG BUS RIDES!). Hopefully I will survive this 8 hour ride and get back on here with some pictures of what I expect to be the most beautiful city we will encounter in Peru.

Bye for now! <3