Lake Titikaka - Peru

The Place: In Puno, Peru lies the famous Lago Titikaka. Titi meaning 'puma' and kaka meaning 'grey' (the colour of the lake), although Peruvians will tell you that the 'Titi' belongs to the Peruvian side of the lake and 'Kaka' to the Bolivian side.

Some features: Amazingly, on this lake, the old peruvians actually made islands out of reeds. These are floating islands called 'Islas de Uros' and are anchored by wooden poles. It has happened that the islands have been blown across the lake.

Almost everything on the island is made out of these reeds including the boats and huts. The reeds are also edible and tasty!

From the Uros islands took a trip to 2 other natural islands. On the first we stayed with the local families and ate meals prepared by them. Saw some of the many inca ruins in Peru being a sun temple with amazing arches through which the sunset is visible.

There happened to be a marriage taking place on the island so we joined in the festivities at night and danced to some of the typical Andean music. The tour group was fun. Met some cool people.

Took a trip to the second island (Isla de Taquile) which has some cool Spanish architecture (post colonial).

Strange observation: That marriage lasted the entire day and the locals didnt stop dancing. The father of our house had too much to drink and the party ended with a fist fight. Heh heh, was still fun though.

Also, in the past the president was kind enough to install solar panels on the floating reed islands which allows the residents to watch TV, listen to the radio, and who knows maybe use internet in the near future.