The Floating Islands - Puno, Peru.

The Floating Islands - Puno, Peru 

After few days in La Paz after the jungle, we decided to head to Peru - detouring through Lake Titicaca on our way. We spent a night in the Bolvian side of the lake, Copacabana, where most people visit Isla de Sol - which locals believe to be the birth place of the sun - but after a month of beautiful landscapes we had kind of had enough and just wanted to chill (plus it pretty much just looked like every island in Scotland), so we got drunk instead.

The next morning we got the bus to the Peruvian side of the lake - which was a bit of a nightmare to say the least. When you enter Bolivia they give you an entry card, but they at no point tell you to keep it (...well maybe they do but at that point our spanish was very limited), so I didn't. I got a 50 boliviano fine (about £5) which wasn't too much of a big deal but as we were heading to Peru, we had no Bolivianos left and the closest ATM was about 20 miles away. So my options were limited to either making the long trip to the temperamental bank machine in the tiny town or stay in Bolivia forever. Just as we were about to get the taxi Chris found us$5 in his bag (hallelujah) so they took that but we were still a few bolivianos short so they STILL wouldn't let me leave! Luckily a guy from our bus heard the drama (obviously I was being a bit over dramatic) and lent us the last few bolivianos we needed. After some glares from a lot of people for holding up the queue we were finally in Peru! 

We got back on the bus and headed for Puno where we went on a tour of the floating islands, which are tiny islands built by straw on Lake Titicaca . There's about 70 of them and they are all similar in size (about half the size of a football pitch) and each island holds around 6 families. 

Life on the islands seemed very fair and each island takes a turn to host the tourists, so that the income is equal. Any money made is then devised evenly by each family on the island, regardless of who gives a tour. However, the tourist industry is where the majority of there income comes from so we felt pressured into buying souvenirs and taking a boat taxi ride to the other islands.

Aside from them being a tourist trap, it was so interesting to learn about the history and culture and it was surreal to see how the people of the islands lived (no wifi, ever!). After a quick dress up in the traditional clothes worn by the people of the islands we headed back to Puno. We killed a few hours in the local bars with people we'd met on the tour while we waited for a night bus to Cusco.