We finaly left Cusco (the Navel of the Inca world (most of the time we were in the Irish pub!!!)  and set off on a traditional Peruvian bus journey, not enough seats, stops at every town and a 1 inch gap around the door! Cheap and effective and always an experience.  Arrived tiered and grumpy and had to try 2 hostels before finding one with genuine hot water!  We are on Lake Titicaca the highest and I think the biggest lake in the world (I may of offended the Swiss and Lake Geneva there!)  Puno is not much to write home about but the lake is quite amazing.  At the altitude civilisation can only survive because of the lake.  We visited the floating islands created to escape a mainland stronghold, there are 52 in total and each have a family living there.  The islands are made from reeds and they have houses built from strong reeds.  You can only visit about 25 islands as a tourist as some islanders belive that the camera takes your soul and as a result do not welcome visitors.  One island we visited had a restaurant a post office and a web site!! all this over at least 18 meter deep water on a bed of reeds, amazing.   We also visited Taquile Island (pronounced Tequila, love it!) 8.5kms wide with some 2200 inhabitants. The island has no police force and is run by 20 elders who can be identified by their dark hats, there are 3 rules on the island that everyone must keep 1. dont lie, 2.dont steal and 3. dont buly  it works and the island is a wonderful place.   Men on the island make the womens clothes (girls could you just imagine!) and the women make clothes for the men.  Before marriage young women wear brightly coloured skirts to show they are available and can identify if they are engaged by the amount of tassels they have on their shawls.  Young men wear hats with a long tail and the direction of the tail indicates if they are single, engaged, married or seperated, so simple.   There is a school on the island but most children do not attend instead they learn handycrafts and agriculture.  Agriculture is a major part of the island life and they use home grown herbs for many things, including contraceptives!  Life on the lake is so tranquil it would be easy to stay longer but we have to move on!