The Uros islands are created from layers of reeds, it felt very strange walking on them - a bit like a giant sponge! We were given a little talk by our guide about how they make the islands and then left to look round the huts and boats made from the reeds. The inhabitants were trying to sell their handicrafts or boat rides to us so it did feel a little commercial, especially when one of the `inhabitants' actually came with us on the boat from Puno! But it was a great trip and we got some cool pictures!
After Uros we carried on to Taquile, the 34Km distance took us 3 hours to cover as the boat was going so slowly - a good chance to snooze as we were up at 6am! The highest point of the island is 4050 meters above sea level and the main village is at 3950 m so the climb up to the top was surprising difficult, but the views were amazing, the Lake looked like a painting as it was so still.
We managed to break away from the tour group so we could explore the island oursleves. There were loads of kids everywhere eager for their photo to be taken for 1 sole or a biscuit. We had some biscuits so gave a cute little boy (with the biggest belly, think he does well from the tourists!) a biscuit and suddenly we were surrounded by kids asking for food too! We leant our lesson quickly!
sunset over the lake
The floating islands
One of their traditional boats that they use to go to the pub
The local dress on taquile island
On our way back to the boat
No comments:
Post a Comment