8th - 9th October 2008: This morning we head down to the Lake on bike taxis and catch our boat to the island of Taquile. We meet our guide Carlos and he gives us a quick lesson in Aymara, the local dialect. The scenery is stunning and once we get to Taquile we walk to the top for an even better view. On the way we stop for lunch with a local family, we hear about the hats the men wear which distinguish them as single or married, and the traditions surrounding local marriages. Couples are encouraged to live together for at least two years before getting married (very progressive!) and within this time the women work on a wedding present for their husband - which is a beautiful wide belt on which they embroider a story of their time together. The belt also acts as a back support as the men do most of the manual labour on the island. There is a cooperative market on the main square where locals can sell their produce and the monmey goes directly back to them. I buy a small bag similar to those used to store coca leaves - but mine will store my ipod instead! We walk down to a different dock and catch the boat to the island of Amantani, where we meet the families we will be staying with. Naledi and I stay with Maria and her young son Josef, so we go and drop our things off with them before heading off to meet the island residents. Apparently they often like to play a football match with visitors but as we only have 3 men for our team us girls step up and decide to join in. To start with I think they are a bit taken aback to be playing against so many girls but once they realise we´re not too bad the fun begins! They are much better than us but somehow we manage to hold our own (having Naledi´s excellent goalkeeping skills helps!) and before we know it two hours have passed and we have won the game! Carlos our guide is suprised we managed to keep going for so long at such high altitude (Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world) but I think our trekking on the Inca Trail must have given us superpowers! After the football it´s back to Maria´s for a lovely supper and then getting ready for dancing in the evening. Naledi and I are very excited to be able to dress up in the traditional outfits - which consist of layers and layers of thick skirts (we end up with 4 each but Maria has about 6!), an embroidered jacket, thick colourful belt and small bowler hat. The local women wear their hair in pigtails and Maria asks if she can put my hair in the same style. While doing so she explains that she has four sons but no daughters so loves the chance to have girls around who she can dress up! We all head off to the village hall where we see locals from about 5 to 50 dance, until then it´s our go! They all have so much energy that after being flung around the dance floor we are exhausted and have to go to bed!

This morning we leave Maria early, she walks us and her sheep down to the lake to say goodbye. We head to the floating Uros islands, which are made of a reed found on the lake. The island we visit has 10 families with one elected leader, who will be in charge for a year. Although the islands are anchored they are movable, so if you don´t like your neighbours you can float away somewhere else! We catch one of the local water taxis to another island to have a look at their trout farm before heading back to Puno.