The highest navigable (whatever that means) lake in the world is Lake Titicaca, take that Tahoe! Lake Titicaca is a massive lake bordering Peru and Bolivia. On the lake lies one of the most fascinating pieces of architecture; the floating islands. Years ago outside of Puno city on Lake Titicaca there was an unusual amount of rain. The solution? Create your own islands of course! Using what they call 'Totora reeds' the Uros tribe, who predate the Incas mind you, the people living near Puno literally wove flood resistant islands that floated on the lake. I thought it was wonderful, and as our tour guide pointed out if you didn't like your neighbor well hey just cut him off your island and there would be no more disputes! Today the island is extremely touristy with a couple of restaurants, and the locals desperately attempting to, almost forcing you to buy some of their goods. The architecture and the engineering of the place still blew me away and I loved it although some of the people in my group were a bit annoyed. I rode a woven boat across the islands while two ladies rowed about eight of us across. Not only was this physically impressive but the boat was fascinating, which like the islands themselves are woven out of plants.
After riding the woven boat across our more modern boat took us to another island called Amantani. On Amantani we docked and a group of local women were awaiting us and essentially bid on, or were assigned to some of the tourists. A very sweet middle aged lady took my friend Matt, a lovely British lady named Eve, and I to her house. She prepared us an incredible vegetarian dish and after we rested we went on a hike with our group. After the hike our house mom gave us some traditional clothes which we put on and we headed to a fiesta where I did my best impression of what many would refer to us dancing (twas not pretty).
The morning after consisted of us waking up at 6:30, having another vegetarian meal and then heading to our boat to head to the third and final island of our tour; Taquile island. On Taquile Island we took a beautiful hike and enjoyed a nice lunch with an incredible view of the lake and surrounding islands.
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