A pleasant early morning trip to the port on 3 wheel bicycles and a stop to buy supplies for the families we are going to be staying with on the island (as presents), we were on our boat powered by non other than a 1970's car engine (it was apparent early on it would be a long trip).

3 hours to get to our first island, so we learnt a few facts: Elevated 3850m above sea level it was amazing to see such a large expanse of water edged by the snowcapped mountains of Bolivia. Lake Titikaka is owned 60% by Peru and 40% by Bolivia and is translated as grey puma, or as our tour guide liked to joke the bit we were on was called Titi (Peru) and the bit in Bolivia is called Kaka, not funny unless you know that the spanish translation for Kaka is poo!! 165km long and 60km wide, it was hard to believe that we were actually on a lake. The trout it is populated with were imported from Canada and with no other food options and my appetite now well and truly back, I broke my food ban, and it was delicious, the best trout I have ever tasted!

Our first Island was Taquile, with only 4000 inhabitants was a very quaint little place, the women all dressed in traditional black and red dress and we learnt about some of the traditions on the island. They were hilarious, single people advertise themselves as such, males by wearing colourful pointy hats and women big pompons on their shawls with a rock tied inside (all will become clear). Then when a male is interested he has a mirror that he shines in the sunlight in the direction of the girl and if interested she shines back. The absence of the sun makes it all that more interesting...the bloke would throw small stones at the girl and if interested she replies by carefully throwing her rock in his direction, but if not, she beats him with the rock, vicious!! Sadly, we didn't get to see this in practise.

Our homestay Island, Amantani, was similiar. We were greated by our Mama's and Papa's (I had visions of it turning into a school football team selection where there was potential for me to be left standing until last, but luckily we had been pre-allocated families). The hill on the way up to our house was ridiculous and carting our luggage almost killed us, the locals were just running up and laughing at us. The evening consisted of us watching the boys all struggle at football, us helping/hindering our Mama preparing our dinner and then the village dance. Brilliant, Xavier (our Mama) brought up traditional dress to our rooms and helped us get in it, we were bodiced up tight (not good after 2 courses of dinner) and off we all headed down a rocky path in the pitch black with just a torch to guide our way. (probably one of the most random 10 mins of my travels, dressed like a muppet, stumbling around in the dark, with Mama and Papa in tow). The disco was great, a live panpipe band and the locals had us all up dancing all night, very energetic with both the altitude and the tight bodice now hindering us.

The next day we waved goodbye to our families and head to check out the floating villages. "Isla Flotante Uros" as they are called, some 50 islands in total with about 1000 inhabitants and falling. The arthritis etc caused by the rainy season here means life expectancy is only 55 compared with 75 on the other islands, so many people are migrating to the mainland. We got to go on a traditional wicker boat ride, see inside the houses, learn a bit about life on the island and it was time to head off again.