In the morning we headed to Lake Titicaca from our hostel in Puno. The lake is over 3000m above sea level and is the highest lake in the world. Titi means puma, caca means stone or grey and the name comes from pre Inca times. The lake is supposedly the shape of a puma catching a rabbit. 60% of the lake belongs to Peru and 40% belongs to Bolivia but the border is only an imaginary line. There are 4 native species of fish in the lake and 2 introduced species. One of the introduced fish is Canadian trout. It is completely freshwater and only connected to water from the mountains not from the sea, which is really impressive considering how big it is. There are 90 floating islands on the lake.
The first island we visited was the floating island Titino. We met the president of the island called Ronald who demonstrated how they build the floating islands, which are a maximum of 3m deep. During the demonstration we tasted the bottom end of the reeds used to make the islands as the locals eat this part before laying the reeds down. It tasted quite fresh and wasn't unpleasant at all. Afterwards we got back on the boat and went to the island Amantani. We met our homestay family at the port, they were really friendly as were the two Americans who were staying with the same family. The wife Robertas made us lunch which consisted of quinoa soup and a huge plate full of potatoes and a slice of fried cheese. The food was nice but the portion was so huge that noone could finish it. We were expecting the house to be very basic but actually it was much more modern than we expected with a new three piece suite bathroom, although with a lack of running water. Later in the afternoon we hiked to the highest part of the island called Patchamama which means mother earth. This was a sacred place and had a ritual site where the locals still perform a ceremony every year. The guide told us that we could face the sun and walk around the site in a circle three times and we could make two wishes according to Andean beliefs. I decided to take up the offer of the wishes so I did as the guide said as did Eddy afterwards. We had dinner with our family which was potato soup followed by stewed potatoes and root veg with rice. They sure like to carb it up on this island!! Again noone could finish their dinner. In the evening Robertas dressed us up in the island's tradtional dress. We thought we looked absolutely hilarious. Peruvian women are small so my dress fitted but Eddy's dress only came to her knees. The outfits were really heavy but kept us warm! We wore the outfits to a dance at the town hall where we joined in with the locals dancing round the room. It was so much fun and ended much too early for our liking. Today was one of the highlights of our trip so far and definitely an experience we will never forget.