Lake Titicaca

We had a one day window in the middle of a series of strikes and road blocks and decided to high tail it to Puno which is on Lake Titicaca. I was so ill I hardly knew where we were going but you could see all the stones at the side of the road which were used for the road block. It would have been very dangerous for anyone trying to beat the block. Our hostel in Puno was like a fridge. It was colder inside than out and I went straight to bed. Lake Titicaca is very beautiful and stretches from Peru to Bolivia. There were three ships in Puno on the Lake. One, MV Yavari, has an unusual story. It was built in the 1860s in Britain and was literally hauled over the Andes by mules – it took 6 years! There is a film by Wim Wenders about it. When it was eventually re-assembled there was no timber to fuel the engines, so it was fuelled by llama droppings! An English woman managed over the years to get funding to restore it. It is in beautiful condition now, with a lot of the original fittings and also diesel engines. There is another ship being restored and owned by the Orient Express probably as a tourist venue.
I visited the floating island of Uros. It was made of reeds and the people also used reed boats. Actually there were motor boats hiding behind the houses so I doubt the people used the reed boats anymore for fishing although I did have a ride in one. Thor Heyerdahl the Norweigan explorer based his design for his papyrus boat on these boats.
We stayed overnight in the home of the villagers on the Island of Amantani but again I was so ill with the cold (Gripe) I hardly saw the Island. The walk up was horrendous steep and at altitude. I did manage to knock down one of the walls by leaning on it! Our host gave me a wonderful concoction of tea made with Coco leaves and Moonia leaves and I felt so much better the next day. The women here were wonderfuly embroidered blouses and cloaks. We took the boat to the Isla Taquile where we were greeted by locals and had a long, again steep, walk to Plaza de Aramis. The people dress differently to Amantani and the men walk around knitting while the women spin! The people of this island wear a traditional form of dress. The women wear dark coloured headdresses worn on the back of their heads. Whether they are married or unmarried is depicted by the size of the pom-poms on the veil. The men wear different coloured hats to depict whether they are married or not. If a man is unmarried he wears his hat to the side.The island is steep and very pretty with groves of trees and beautiful flowers. The way up was steep and I really felt the climb after being ill.