Sunday 17th June - Tuesday 19th June ----Lake Titicaca From Cusco we caught a bus to Puno which was our gateway into Lake Titicaca! We stayed in a very friendly hostel where we met the owner on the bus! After calling the Dads on Fathers day we booked a 2 day 1 night tour to see the Lake, Uros (the floating Islands) to stay a night on an Island in a families home all for 10 GBP. Not bad at all. We ate out that night, Han had the local 'Kingfish' and I had the Alpaca steak, which were both Yum. Early bed and early start. The following morning we joined our boat along with about 20 others. En-route we picked up pens and fruit for he families. On board we met Mario & Johanne (Canada) Sarah (Taiwan) & Nelson (Columbia) and all sat at the back swapping stories whilst our boat made its way to our first destination 'Uros'. As we approached through the water channels between huge clumps of reeds you could see some high towers with men hanging out of them. The closer we got you could see that they were made from reeds all lashed together at this was to continue. The towers were where the boat settled our entrance fee into the floating villages. Back from pre-Inca times the people of Uros escaped the main land and exsisted trouble free away from invasion. These people are amazing their whole lives revolve around the floating islands of which there are many all constructed from reeds as is everything on them. On each island there is one or more families living on them who other than the odd trip to the main land for supplies are totally self sufficient. Now a day's there is solar power allowing electric lighting and TV's but this is not common on all of the islands. Schools, Hospitals, Kinder gardens all now exist. They farm animals and crops for food on the reeds. Thew water is used for fishing, showering, washing, cooking, drinking, toilet!!! So they advised us not to try the drinking water!! We looked around a couple of the islands and met the families that live on them. A reed boat was laid on for us between islands for a small cost. An amazing place which now thrives on tourism. Once aboard our vessel we headed for a couple of hours to our next destination, the island of Aramanti. The journey there was picture postcard stuff, with the deep blue waters carrying on for miles and miles into the distance. The lake was just like an ocean surrounded by mountains. We could see the Bolivian side of the lake in the far distance. As we arrived in Aramanti several families in traditional clothing greeted us. Euginio & Yollanda were to be our hosts for our stay along with there four children; Delia, Pamela, Fanny & Yasmin. The house was a quaint blue property almost at the top of the village where the views of the lake were spectacular & in another country worth millions, although the doors were only four foot high which made entering and leaving the rooms a little tricky. Late lunch consisted of Quinua soup and egg fried rice after we hiked to the Islands summit to watch the sunset, which was well worth it! We returned to the house where we helped the kids lean some English by candle light in return for some Spanish lessons!! We ate well in the tiny dark kitchen with all the family before being dressed in traditional clothing and heading out for the night's fiesta. We learnt to dance Peruvian styleee with a couple of beers. A good evening. The following morning we were up and had pancakes for breakfast before saying our thank you's and good-byes and joining our vessel for the ride to the next island which would prove to be very eventful. Having left the harbor only 15 mins into an hour or so journey to the next island the boats engine had started making funny noises but the captain didn't seem to be too bothered which proved to be our un-doing. SNAP there goes the fan belt!! Now at this point no one was overly concerned until the captain began looking for something to fashion a fan belt from. It would appear that on our very expensive boat there was no spares, no radio, no NOTHING to assist us in the event of a breakdown!! After several attempts to make a fan belt from a nylon cord which snapped straight away, Lars to the rescue!! (Swedish / Canadian sailor) Lars braided some rope into a fan belt, which if used gently would hopefully get us to the next island where spares could be found. In true Peruvian style we went as fast as we could with the belt just managing to hold together!! In the end it took 2 ½ hours to make the hour journey but we made it!! We walked from the perimeter of the small island to the small township, which was all very picturesque before having lunch with the whole tour group in a local restaurant. No surprises Fish & Rice for dinner?. But all good. We headed across the island and down around 500 steps to meet our repaired boat!! It took four hours to return to Puno but a nice ride at that. We over heard a few people talking of bus strikes happening the following day but waited till we reached Puno to find out the extent of the murmuring. In turned out that unless we left that evening we would be stuck in Puno for another day and night at least due to a strike of bus drivers. Along with Mario & Johanne who had a similar itinerary we organized a taxi to take us to the Desdergado which was a Peruvian border town right on the Bolivian border. This was our only hope to keep up with our time schedule in South America. A scary ride and a Taxi picnic got us to the border we arrived to chaos. A long line of lorries was waiting to cross into Bolivia when the border re-opened as the border had closed for the evening. Our taxi driver found s a dodgy hostel where you had to request hot water at reception but a bed all the same. We all crashed amid the noise outside as tomorrow we crossed into a new country.