Camisaraki! ("Hi, how are you?" in Aymara)

We got to Puno and the place was buzzing, it was the celebration of the cities 240 year anniversary. In the centre there was a carnival in the streets, people were dressed up in traditional costumes, dancing down the parade route, their music is interesting but repetitive. After more wondering around, we found the best bakery ever! in the evening we went out for dinner and to Kim´s disgust Tom ordered a whole Guinea Pig! It came out with everything - head, teeth and eyes! (Lynn, it was another Italy moment - thought I was gonna be sick!) Tom said not much meat on it but it tasted just like chicken!

Yesterday we got up early and got a 3 hour boat ride to the island of Tiquina on Lake Titikaka. Here they speak Quechua, the traditional language of the Inca´s. We walked to the top of the island to see the main square. The Island has become quite touristy, which is a shame. We had a nice trout lunch caught from the lake! From the island we headed to a little village on a peninsula of the mainland where they speak Aymara. Here we were meeting local families who we were staying with for the night. When we arrived they were stood at the port playing music. We met our families who were looking after us and went to check out our home for the night. For the rest of the afternoon we played football against the locals who were much fitter than us because of the altitude they live at. We went back with our families for dinner where they served us a huge plate of potatoes pasta and rice (heavy going!) Once we had finished dinner they dressed us up in traditional clothes and took us to a community hall where we all danced to traditional music, it was great fun.

This morning we woke up to the sound of farm animals and had breakfast prepared for us by our families - Fried dough bread and a mug of Mai te (local tea), it was good. We got back on the boat and left our families at about 8:30 and travelled to the floating islands of Uros. These islands are completly man made using reeds and reed roots and they simply float on Lake Titikaka. Every month they have to lay new reeds on top of the old ones as the ones on the bottom gradually rot away. Everything on the islands are made from reeds - houses, boats and look out points, they even eat the reeds! We left the island, had a picnic on the boat and travelled back to Puno. We have had a free afternoon today, so we are going to explore before we leave tomorrow to head to Cuzco. Here we will stay for a few days before we start the Inca Trail - eek!

Hope everyones okay.

Love to all.

love us x x x