Well here I am and after the over night bus have finally arrived in Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca. This is probably the bit I have been most looking forward to on the whole of my trip seeing this lake, the highest in the world and also Uros the famous reed islands.

Well today I have spent the day with Cecelia (travelling buddy) travelling around in little buggies powered by a little man behind you on a push bike going from market to market in looking for cheap tat for us and lots of fruit veg and pens to give to the people tomorrow when we have our homestay on one of the islands in the middle of the lake. We have managed to buy enough food to sink the island!!

The first island we visited was Taquille which was beautiful, this of course was aided by the fact that the sun was very bright and bounced of the very blue lake and the skies were so clear you could see La Paz and Bolivia. Here we climbed to the top of the island (no mean feat at that altitude and that heat) and had a wander round the central square. Here its tradition for the boys and men (its always usually the girls and women) to do all the knitting and sewing and everywhere you could see young boys as young as 5 making woolly hats to sell to the gringo´s´! We were soooo lucky the day we arrived too as it was festival day (see the pics) just about the whole island turned up in the squre (most of whom in the procession were too tipsy to walk straight ) and had a party, once that was in full swing they then set off marching and singing around the rest of the island - a highlight of our time on the lake.

That evening we then headed off to our homestay island of Amantani , like in Puno and the surrounding area the main language spoken is Quechuan (the original Inca language) and Spanish is only spoken in emergencies and only by the kids. Despite my Spanish being errr less than promising we managed to get by with our host family via the "international language" of pointing and using our fingers! The house we stayed in was gorgeous with views across Lake Titicaca (again see the pics). That night as it started to get dark the sky was filled with stars (as no light pollution) and we could even see the milky way! we then got dressed up in traditional costumes and went dancing in the village/island hall

Next morning we were up early (as always on this trip) got dressed and headed off in our boat to Uros the famous reed islands. Anyone who knows me knows that it has been my dream to go to this islands since I was a dot! (ok a bit older than that!). For those of you that aren´t as sad as me to know about these, they are several islands on the lake made entirely of the reeds that grow there - they float! Every few weeks the islanders have to replace the reeds that their houses are on else they will fall into the lake (at the highest lake in the world its a freeezing 4¨c so anyone who goes in the water doesn´t last long unless their wearing some serious thermal undies!) We landed on one of the islands and was given a demo of how the islands constructed. In additional to building the islands with these reeds the islanders also buld their houses with them and eat them too! we all tried a bit of Lake Titicaca reed, it was a bit like how you would expect a reed to taste, a bit stringy and a bit tatseless but each to their own eh? I´m probanly starting to sound a bit negative here because, well I am....having wanted to visit these islands for SOO long it was pretty obvious from being there that no-one lived on them anymore and that they were only there as a tourist trap and a way for the Punonians (people from Puno the nearest town) to sell their tourist tat. Still, i´m really pleased I went and thats one more thing crossed off my list and we did get a ride in a reed dragon boat!!!!