We spent the next 2 days exploring a few of the islands around Puno, with our guide Percy. He briefed us on our trip the night before, explaining that we will be picked up from our hotel and transferred down to the pier in their ecological limos, and we were delighted to find a row of trishaws waiting for us that morning. The 36km / 22 mile ferry ride to Taquile Island took 3 hrs, the first 20 minutes crossing through a channel of torora reeds.

Taquile Island is beautiful, and the villagers have retained the same lifestyles from centuries back, slightly eroded by tourism and the invasion of cameras and tourist dollars. Most of the farming terraces date back to Inca, or even pre-Inca times. We had lunch at a lovely restaurant patio at the top of the island.

Percy gave us a most insightful glimpse into the lives of the 2,000 islanders. The island does not receive much support from the central government - they govern themselves through election of their community leaders. An election committee would nominate the candidates based on their good-standing in the community, and the islanders would elect their favoured candidate by show of hands. However this system fault-ridden as there were consistently more votes than the population of the island, as many islanders would show their hands for more than one candidate. So they modified the system recently, and showed the villagers to the door once they have raised their hands the first time.

Percy also described their costumes. Single men would wear a knitted woollen hat (which they knit themselves) of red and white, whereas married men would wear a red hat. Single women wear black shawls adorned with large colourful pom-poms on the edges. Married women wear similar shawls, but with smaller pom-poms which are less colourful. On average, men marry at 18, and women at 16. When courting, the men and women would carry mirrors, and the man would flash the woman to catch her eye. If she is interested, she would respond by flashing her mirror. (If there is no sun, they would use small stones and toss them at each other instead). If a man is persistent in pursuing a woman, and she is not interested, the large pom-poms on her shawl comes in handy in beating him into a retreat! How delightful .....