Lake Titticaca

    

As a pitstop before Boliva we spent a couple of nights in Puno. This city sits right on the edge of Lake Titicaca, largest lake in South America which stretches between Bolvia and Peru. It is also the highest lake in world at 3,812 metres.

We stayed at Marlons house with Mel and Marcial also, Jannis and max also popped up so nearly all our Machu Picchu group were together again. 

We visited the famous floating islands the next day. We took at boat out to the Island of Uros, a collection of about 40 small islands all made of reeds, with a collective population of about 4000 people. Each island lasts about 30 years and are all man made from reeds cultivated on the lake. Every 10 days new reeds need to be laid to replace those that have rotted away underneath. When you step on the island it feels squishy like you are stepping marshmallows.That night we were going to go and find some guinea pig but we got stranded in our hotel from a freak storm that covered the streets in hailstones and looked like we had been in a blizzard. We noticed that many Peruvians didnt have windscreen wipers so to see you saw little hands poking around and wiping the 10cm thick of hail off the window unsuccessfully. 

The lakes are worth seeing but besides this there is not much else to see in Puno so you could even just do this as a day trip and then get a later bus to La Paz. We stayed 3 nights as we were delayed due to a local Bus strike, so we just waited it out before hopping on a bus to Boliva.