Up early to bus to Puno. We were all waiting in the reception for out leader but she never turned up.  Our transfer guy was there, so after multiple attempts to contact lady Patricia we made our on way to the bus station.  We caught the bus to Puno in the hope she would meet us there. Went for a walk around to the town square.  Only 150,000 people live here so a smaller city. I really like it thought. It's a lot cheaper and has a great vibe. Patricia meet us and came out for dinner.  We found out she was robbed at knife point last night. She was in a taxi from the centre of Cusco which is considered safe. Two incidents in two nights is pretty scary. I'm just glad she is alright.

Picked up from our hotel in taxis (bikes with little seats on the front). Really relaxing trip to the dock where we caught a boat.  The first stop was the reed islands. Such an interesting experience. The community is actually living on reeds floating on Lake Titicaca. They build the islands with 2 meters of reed and add to it every 4 to 6 weeks. Each island last about 30 years before it sinks.  There are 87 islands with about 2200 inhabitants.

Had a ride in a traditional boat,  which was a double hulled reed boat. I even had a go a rowing it. Then we took our big boat for 1 hour 40 mins to Llachon which is on the Capachica Penisula. Here we meet our mama's.  Niyoshi, Sunhye and I had Flora who had the most adorable 9 month old called Michael. Had lunch, which included quinoa soup, rice, beans, fried cheese and potatoes. I went to the lake and had a quick swim 2 while Niyoshi and Patricia laughed at me. It was pretty cold, the average lake temperature is 9 degrees.  It is the highest navigational lake in the world, sitting at 3800m. Returned to our house which is Richards house to crush the dried potatoes and remove the broad beans from the stalks.

Headed down to the pitch near the lake.  Here we played against and with the locals for volleyball, dodge ball and a form of swing ball but we had no bats. All and all a really fun time, I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Lots of smiles all around.

Back up to the main building to get on our traditional clothing and then help prepare the potatoes and broad beans. Then dinner time. We had vegetables soup with our potatoes and beans.  Then rice with fried chips with a spice on them. Again the food was amazing and incredible fulling.  Everyone retired to bed quite early. I think Sunhye,  Nadine and Simon may be feeling the altitude a bit as they don't look too good. Patricia, Niyoshi and I played couple of rounds of s***head and then headed to bed with our hot water in bottles and the sound of the many local animals.

Up to a breakfast of pancakes, fried bread and boiled eggs. Said bye to our mama and then got on our boat for 2 hours back to Puno. Along the way we saw many trout farms. Apparently trout and kingfish were introduced into Lake Titicaca as big fish. Unfortunately they ate 16 of the 28 native fish.  Even worse as they evolve the trout and kingfish are just getting smaller. Because of the lack of oxygen and temperature it is only possible to have small fish. So they screwed Up big time. In Puno,  Patricia made us some bloody cool pineapple drinks. They were pineapple pisco sours in actual pineapples. Headed put for our last Peruvian dinner at a place that they preformed traditional songs and dances while we ate. I had alpaca. Interesting taste, a bit beefy but then at the end it kind of tasted like pork.