Well we just got back to our hostel in Puno after a two day, one night home stay on the Amantani Island in Lake Titicaca. This lake is the second largest lake in South America and apparently it is one of the world's highest navigable bodies of water.

To start off our trip we took a boat ride to where Uros Floating Islands where we got to learn about there very unique way of life. The Uros people, in an effort to escape from the Incas during war and territory invation, decided to survive by living on floating islands. These people made floating islands out of Totora reeds. The Totora reeds look exactly the same as the ''weeds'' sticking out of the water at Oak Lake. Anyways, these islands are started by waiting until the end of the rainy season when all the roots of the reeds have floating up due to the rise in the water level. These roots are all in one big huge clump, so smaller pieces have to be cut for easier transport. These pieces are then anchored together with posts and rope. Because these roots are still alive these pieces will eventually grow together to become one solid island. Once the base is made the next step is to start putting layers of redds on. Ths step requires the use of the green parts, not the roots. These pieces are layered on, each layer alternating direction. Quite a few layers have to be put down before it is ready to be lived on. Once the island is lived on another layer of reeds has to be added every 15 to 20 days. It taked a great deal of work to maintain these islands. These islands have been used by the Uros people to live on for 600 years and some of the islands are around three meters thick. It was pretty interesting to see how these islands were built and they felt spongy to walk on. I also got to ride on a boat that was made of reeds which was quite cool too. Everything the Uros people use almost is made by the reeds, the island, the boats, and their houses too.

After walking around and looking at the floating islands we moved on to Amantani island where we met our host family. Alyssa and I ended up staying in the same house which was nice. Our host family consisted of one lady, Faustina. She apparently has a young son, but we never met him. She then took us to her house where we were served lunch which consisted of quinoa and veggie soup to start, a potato veggie rice mixture and mint tea to finish. They serve HUGE portions though and I couldn't finish my plate even though I tried really hard. The bowl of soup was big enough that I would have been happy with just that for lunch, but then she gave us another bowl with one and a half big potatoes, about six little potatoes, some cucumbers, some tomatoes and a large piece of this cooked cheese stuff. We were fed so much food that after lunch we had a nap before we went on a hike. On our hike we climbed to the top of the island, which was like a mini mountain, using quite a steep path all the way to the top. It took about an hour to get to the top and once there we got to watch the sunset. It was a very pretty site, although it happened within a matter of minutes and then it got cold right away. We finished taking our pictures and then headed back down the mini mountain and went back to our house for supper, again with the big portions. We started with noodle and veggie soup, then we had a potato and veggie mixture over rice and tea to finish. Needless to say I've had my potato fix for a while. After supper it was time to get dressed up in Peruvian clothing and do some Peruvian dancing. I wore a blue skirt, white shirt with embroidered flowers and a black shawl also with embroidered flowers. It was pretty snazzy. The dancing mostly consisted of the entire group holding hands and being dragged around in circles and different patterns. It was quite different. After the dancing it was time for bed, it had been a busy day. When we went to bed though we went getting ready for bed and I moved my back pack around on the bed I was going to sleep on when all of a sudden some boards fell out of the bottom and made a loud thunk. It was pretty nerve wracking because we thought the bed was broke! We tried to put the boards back in place, but it didnt want to work for us. Its not broken though. Luckily in our room there was three beds so I just switched to the other bed, no harm done.

Day two of the home stay experience consisted of waking up and having breakfast at the house. We had a bun with butter and jam as well as a pancake like thing also with butter and jam. After breakfast we said good bye to our Amantani family and boarded the boat. After an hour boat trip we arrived on Taquille Island were we hiked around the island looking at both the Bolivian side of the lake and the Peruvian side. After some hiking we stopped to have lunch which consisted of potatoes, rice trout and veggies. It was yummy. After lunch we decended back to the docks using 545 stairs. This is what our guide told us and I will take his word for it because I stopped counting after two hundred and some. Our final leg of the tour was a three hour boat ride back to Puno.

We are back in our Puno hostel for our last night in Peru before our early morning departure to Copacabana, Boliva tomorrow.

Peru has been fun, interesting and I have learned a lot. We have had a bad moment or two (Alyss'a phone) and we have definetly had some awesome times. I have to say some of the highlights were definetly sand boarding and buggying, climbing the mountian, Machu Picchu and learning so many new things about the Peruvian culture and the Inca history. I am also learning a tiny bit of Spanish which is cool, but lots of people actually speak some English so I don't practice much.

Boliva will be country number two on this adventure and I'm sure some more exciting and interesting things are to come once we get there.