Island hopping on Lake Titicaca

Before I left the UK I decided to book an organised tour for some of the Peru leg of my trip for ease and to take some of the pressure off organising the various permits for the Inca Trek. After a lot of searching I finally decided to book the Andean Experience a 21 day trip organised by Tucan Travel as the itinerary covered pretty much everything I wanted to see.

As a solo traveller one of the things I liked about Tucan was that it didn't charge a single supplement unless you specified you wanted your own room. Having grown accustomed to sharing rooms by now I was happy to share on the tour too.

I met the tour leader, Neil and fellow travelling companions in La Paz. The group had already been travelling together for two weeks when I joined along with Becky and Hugh from Ireland. I was a little nervous especially breaking into an already well established group but everyone was very friendly and welcoming.

From La Paz we headed to Puno in Peru. The journey took around six hours including a minor drama when we had to swap buses in Copacabana because the one we were on wouldn't start. After overnighting in Puno we headed down to the docks to join the boat for our two day trip visiting islands on Lake Titicaca, which is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3,812m. As we would be staying overnight with a family we stopped off quickly to pick up food and toys to give to our host family as a thank you.

Our first port of call was the Uros Islands or floating islands. The people living on these islands create them by lashing together reed root clusters and then layering dried reeds on the top. Their houses are then positioned on top. Every few months more reeds are added to the top of the island.

If there are disputes on the island or if a family isn't pulling their weight they can be cut off, quite literally from the island. Similarly two islands can join together if they want to. 

From there we made our way to Amantani Island, which is where we would spend the night, our guide enjoyed telling us a bit about the courtship rituals on the island. Thanks to advances in technology this now involves the boys sitting on hillsides with a big boombox blaring out romantic music in the hope the object of his affections comes to join him. 

When we reached the island we were introduced to our 'mama' and taken to where we would be staying. I was staying with Terri, Catherine and Neil. The house was basic but cosy and the rooms were comfortable.

After a filling lunch of soup, potatoes, cheese and salad we headed out to the island's football pitch, where some of the group played a match against the locals. We then went on a hike up to the top of the island where we could see the Bolivian side of the lake in the distance. Despite the rather threatening looking grey clouds the views were amazing.

After the hike it was back to our various houses for supper and then we got dressed up in the traditional dress of the island for a fiesta. The men wore ponchos and the women had to wear an embroidered blouse, skirt, belt and shawl. Typically, the skirt I had was quite big and during the course of the evening I had to get my mama to help dress me again before it fell down. 

The fiesta was great fun with traditional music and dancing, which we all joined in with.

From Amantani Island we made our way back to Puno, stopping at Taquile Island on the way. On this island only the men are allowed to knit and the women weave. Before a man can have permission to marry he has to knit a hat, which his prospective parents-in-law fill with water, if the majority of the water is still in the hat after eight minutes then the man is given permission as it shows he is a good knitter.

While we were on the island we visited a cooperative, which sells various knitted and woven goods made by people on the island. I needed a woolly hat after losing the one I brought with me so took the opportunity to get one from the cooperative for 30 Soles. I was able to find out who made my hat and it had been knitted by a chap called Bernardo Flores.

Lunch was at a small restaurant on the island and the two options were either trout or omelette. The trout, which is from the lake, was delicious and cooked perfectly.

Back in Puno a few of us sampled the nightlife and ended up in a Mega Disco. When we walked in it was like we'd crashed a work night out as everyone was dressed in shirts and ties. The club had a lift as it was split over three levels but unfortunately only the ground floor was open so we weren't able to test it out. Definitely worth a visit if you ever happen to be in Puno.