Lago Titicaca

We drove in a public bus from Cusco to Puno. It's a long drive but the seats were amazing - 160 degree recline, massive lazyboy style and free wifi. It made up for the 8 hour drive. Somewhere along the route we ran into the protesters who painted the bus then let us keep going. We also saw tons of flamingos on the river along the way. 

Fun facts about the lake:

• Largest and highest navigable lake - 3810 m. 
• It gets about 218 m deep. 
• 60% in Peru, rest in Bolivia. 
• 30 types of ducks but only 7 types of fish. 
• 2000 people live on floating islands.
• Courting on Tequille means hitting the girl with a rock then asking for a dance via a flash light. 
• Also when people get married on Teqille, the bride and groom are not allowed to sleep throughout the three day party. Also the men makes the bride's outfits which she has to wear the number of skirts which is her age. 
• All the men on Tequille are responsible for all knitting and the making of clothes for women on the island. 

We started out on a slow boat for two hours to the kayaking base camp. We then got into two person kayaks to do 10 km of kayaking on the lake. It took about 3 hours. We then had lunch on Tequille where we ran into 5 different weddings. It's a neat thing to run into. Lunch, however, was revolting. I ended up only having rice. 

We then took a boat to Ama for our homestay. It's an island that still speaks Quechen with about 4,000 people. We played soccer with the locals and got just destroyed. Christina tackled me. I hurt now. We then got all dressed in local wear and danced in the main square. It was funny because we all dance like white people without rhythm. Our homestay was nice but so so so cold. 

Day two kayaking was hell. It was choppy as all heck and christina and I are not coordinated. It's hilarious to watch us muscle through the kayaking. Neither of us is coordinated and it shows. However, we didn't give up and did the 12km ride home all by ourselves. Some of our squad had to get into the boat mid way through. 

We visited the floating island of Tata Llachu Punco and another island whose name I didn't remember. The first was less touristy than the second. 

Fun facts about the floating islands: 

• People are not sure when they started living on the floating islands. 
• They are about 3m thick of peat moss then covered with reeds. 
• The islands take about a year to make.  
• They eat flamingo when they are pregnant. 
• Only primary schools on the islands. 
• Still heavily dependent on the main island. 
• There's about 150 floating islands in one part of the lake only. 
• 10-12 people live on each island. 
• There's about 12 layers of reeds on each island. 

I am now super sore and every part of my body has had a full workout. To end the trip, the entire group went to a reggae bar. I'd highly recommend this trip, it was amazing! 

AFN