Where have we been lately!!? Pt 1

Just a quick update on our last few days. I wrote so many postcards that I forgot to do a blog post!

5 nights ago we arrived in Puno, which is the largest Peruvian city on Lake Titicaca.  The lake doesn't look like much from Puno because it's in a large bay and the bay is filled with an algae bloom.  Puno is about 120000 people and has a neat pedestrian street in the city centre where all the tourism is concentrated.  We spent the night there and at the local market. The night after we were staying with a family in a village along the lake, so we bought gifts for our family. This isn't a gift like a cake for desert and a bottle of wine, we bought staples that they can't get in their village such as onions, carrots, cooking oil etc. plus we bought some healthy snacks and toys for any kids that were in our family.

The next day we took a boat to the floating islands of Uros.  People have been living on these islands made of reeds for over 600 years and they still authentically live there (not for tourist's spectacle). They anchored their islands next to an underwater canyon that funnels fish into it so they have ample fishing opportunities. Surprisingly, the main fish is rainbow trout, seeded from Canada many years ago.

Next up was Taquille Island, which was a couple hour boat ride away. This island is a couple kilometres across, with large hills and a climate like the Okanagan. There are no vehicles on the island and all the citizens dress like 16th century Spaniards. We had a nice lunch with an incredible view of the Lake (clear and not algae covered here) and the Andes on the east side of the lake.

Next was a boat ride to a small village on a peninsula about 40 mins away. We played soccer with local kids and lost 6-5. Then after we saw a local dance and then we had to perform the local dance in full dress

We weren't laughed off the island so I guess we did okay.  Next was meeting our local family and dinner. Our new mama was a nice woman who had 3 kids, 2 in university and one age 14. There was a huge language barrier so after a nice dinner and sharing pictures of Indie we were off to bed super early.  We had our own room with two single beds and a bathroom.

The next day we had breakfast and helped with chores such as taking the sheep to pasture and then we harvested some quinoa. To harvest quinoa we took the dried stalks and beat them with a stick over a tarp. That shook some of the small grains out. This was very tough work and took a toll on our backs as we were doing all this on the ground.

After lunch we said 'see you later' to our new mama and headed back to Puno. After we got to our hotel Jody started feeling very sick.  There were 3 others in our tour who were sick too.

I had dinner with our smaller group at a show restaurant. They had a local band and dancers.  The band was a mix of panflutes and Jethro Tull

It was more entertaining than it looks!

Part 2 I'll talk about our voyage the next day.