Titicaca

After Cusco, we traveled by bus to Lake Titicaca. Dorje had an awful lot of fun with that name. The town on the lake is called Puno. What people really come to see are he floating islands called Los Uros.
Los Uros
The islands are anchored in 35 feet of water. They are build, over time, by laying down layers of large peat bog-like blocks of reed root material cut from the actual bottom of the lake and then periodically changing the reeds themselves as a top layer. It is a bit like walking on a bed with a firm mattress.
Island Building Materials

The reeds, called totora, are used for everything including building boats. They are very stable.
Totora Boats
Cooking is done with firewood using earthenware pots. The "stove" is also earthenware and looks a bit like he facade of a church with two steeples that have been cut off to give a place to put the pots. This same "stove" is used by many in Peru.
Cooking over a wood-burning stove

From Los Uros we traveled by boat for two hours to the island of Amantani where we spent the night in what is called turismo vivencial. Two or three people are sent to sleep in the homes of different local residents. The people who host guests take courses to learn how to feed us without killing us or making us sick. Some of us who knew better were worried about Chaggas' Disease but the rooms we staying in had plastered ceilings so were were unlikely to have beetles drop out of the thatch, bite us and make us very sick. In fact, I suspect that the upgrades in the housing were in part due to having visitors come and stay. The extra income means that people are able to do lots of things like not sending their older children off to live in Lima where they can earn money and send it home. If I haven't already said so, for me Lima is like Mordor and much of the rest of Peru is like the Shire.

Olga and Juanita, heading home
Without this extra income I don't think metal roofs would be a possibility.
The Village

This whole year has been a big long honeymoon for us, shared with friends.
Andy and Olga
We are so high here that there are few trees. The terracing not only gives you flat land to cultivate but is also essential to avoid soil erosion since just about every square inch of land is being used.

Countryside

The local people have a little show in the evening to get us to meet a few people. We are dressed up, so to speak.

A Typical Andian Family
But the real stars of the evening were this fashionable couple

David and Friend