Day 19 Puno and Lake Titicaca

Short summary: We kayaked to Uros islands then took a boat the Taquille island.  After a long boat ride home we rested got dinner and boarded a night bus to Cusco

Today's wakeup call at 5:50 was way to early!  We quickly packed up brought our bags down and had a pretty nice breakfast.  There was yogurt for me and Zach got a fried egg sandwhich.  The coffee however was terrible as it mostly has been in south america.

Pretty good breakfast bad coffee at San Antonio Suites

Our ride was late, but at 7 we were finally picked up and along with a french couple taken to the kayak launch spot.  We kayaked about 2 miles through reeds until we reached Uros islands.  The water was kinda polluted in this area, but we did see some birds and it was a nice relaxing trip to the islands.

Start of kayaking in polluted bay

At the islands we were created by a tour guide originally from the island who spoke pretty much perfect english.  She explained how they maintened the islands.  There are about 70-80 islands and 2000 people living there.  They basically get everything for free since they all have solar power free housing and pay no taxes.  We wondered around the island a while, bought a nice mobile with reed boats and some coca/andian mint tea to help Zach's headache.  Just as the islands were getting really crowded our bigger boat arrived to take us to Taquille island. It took about 2.5 hours.  There was some nice scenery but Zach and I did some reading spanish lessons and sleeping on the way as well.

Once we arrived at the island it was a 20 min hike pretty steep uphill to the town square.  We continued as far as we could until we found a gate and then turned around to meet the group for lunch.  Lunch was in a family home.  We had quinoa soup and bread.  I had rainbow trout (headless this time :-) and Zach had an omelet both came with some cool looking local potatoes.  After lunch we got a brief into to the island. There are about 2000 people who live there and since they are pretty much self sufficient they live a long time (mostly over 90 years old).  The type of hat a man wears tells his status (married, single, or town leader).  Basically they are communists on the island.  Everybody works and everybody shares the results and they are all happy.  We also learned about a plant that they use as shampoo.  The demonstration showed it worked really well and it doesn't produce any pollution.

After lunch Zach and went back to the artists market to find a hat.  These hats are amazing!  All handmade with beautiful designs with wool from the island.  Next it was a quick hike to the other side of the island to catch the boat back.  After a nearly 3 hour ride we arrived back in Puno and were transfered back to our hotel.  We took advantage of the hotel lobby to charge everything and upload pictures.

After drinking coffee and hanging out in the lobby we set off for dinner.  This time we succesfully found Machu Pizza.  It was pretty good with typical terrible Peruvian service.  The pizza had almost no sauce but it did come with garlic sauce and salsa.  Walking back to the hotel Zach and I decided to buy some sweaters.  We each got one with an alpaca design for about $12 each!

Thankfully we decided to walk to the bus station early because it was an adventure.  Google had the bus station in the wrong place so after several dark roads and 40 min we finally found the place.  Just in time to board our bus to Cusco.  We were sitting first class with nice seats and personal entertainment again.  Hopefully we will both get some sleep.  (More pictures coming later once better internet is found)