Lake Titicaca (Peru)

Much had happened since my last post.  After Machu Picchu, we woke up for out drive to Puno and Lake Titicaca, but not before having a hearty breakfast with Yvette, our friend from our boat ride to Colombia, who had just arrived in Cuzco.  After breakfast, we packed up the car and headed on our way.  We got to Puno a bit after dark, found our hostel easily, had the cheapest dinner thus far (2.5 soles or 0.89 cents) and got in bed early.  The next morning, we had our free breakfast at the hostel, and made our way to the Bolivian embassy for visas.  After some running around for copies and money, we left the office to return a few hours later, and picked up our visas!  We were bound for Bolivia, but not before a quick tour of Lake Titicaca.  We walked down to the port, and hopped on a boat bound for the islands of Uros.  After a short boat trip, we jumped onto an island of soft reeds.  Uros is a collection of small islands made completely of floating reeds.  The ground has to be replenished with new reeds every week; a community effort, where everyone will work together lifting the small wooden homes up to restock the reeds below them.  The people's income comes primarily from trading fish for goods and tourist contributions.  The official language is Quechua, but the people usually speak everything from English to Mandarin.  The homes are small and meager, but the people were willing to invite us in and explain their way of life.  The island we visited was named Sumatica.  Despite the fact that the islands seemed pretty touristy, with huge welcoming signs on each one, it was still interesting to realize that people have actually lived this way for centuries.  After our tour, we got to ride on one of the traditional reed vessels, called Totoras, to another island, which was specifically to suck money out of tourists.  There was a small restaurant and an "artisanal", aka gift, shop.  We basically waited around for our boat to arrive to go back to Puno, while kids ran around spending money on somewhat ridiculous items that could be bought anywhere, and overpriced food.  When we returned to Puno, we walked around a bit, grabbed another cheap dinner and some yummy Pisco sours (finally! I was not leaving Peru without a proper Pisco sour), and bought snacks for our next few driving days.  We prepped for our drive, and headed to bed.