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Oct. 9, 2016. Inka's Rest B&B, Puno, Peru.
Signed up for the other can't-miss day tour of the Uros Floating Islands and Isla Taquile. Breakfast at 6, and indeed, my cleaned pants and shirt were waiting for me. Walked to the place where the bus was supposed to take us to the wharf for our boat, and enjoyed waiting about 45 minutes with about 30 other tour hopefuls, while the organizer frantically called around on his cell phone. We could have walked to the port in about 10 minutes, but that would have departed from the tour rules.
A boat ride of about an hour, most of it on a channel cut through totora reeds (the same they used for their island and home construction), and we are at the Islas Uros, about as strange a setup as I've ever seen. Lovely reed homes, with outlandish fake Disney-like reed boats docked beside them, some with two decks, each used to propel tourists from one reedy tourist trap to another. True, they did show us how they built the islands and the homes, but they also tried gainfully to extract extra money from us with ever-present quantities of goods for sale, and a strict rule of payment for photos. On the other hand, as long as most of the money the tour and the extras cost (I probably paid a total of $20) goes to the locals, I shouldn't complain. There are only a few hundred locals left, and they subsist almost entirely on tourism.
Then off to Isla Taquile, about 2 hours further on, only 7 sq km, and lovely, with terraces down to the lake, and a walkway from the dock up to the main town offering wonderful views all the way. Made me think of being on a Greek island.
And finally back home, where I had another one dollar dinner at a restaurant around the corner from the hostel. It started to rain just as I completed my meal, so I hustled back to the hostel in a real downpour, thunder and lightning as well, and made it back only slightly soaked.
Now relaxing, getting ready for debate #2 between Trump and Hillary in about an hour. Hope the weather clears up for tomorrow...
The Uru or Uros are an indigenous people of Bolivia and Peru. They live on a still-growing group of about 120 self-fashioned floating islands in Lake Titicaca near Puno. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is the largest lake in South America. The border between Peru and Bolivia runs right through it.
Back in Puno, I admired the mototaxis.
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