After dropping off our luggage at our hotel and a quick breakfast we already got picked up for our Uros tour. The name Titicaca sounds funny to us German speakers but it actually means puma stone. With it’s 3’800m it is the highest navigable lake of the world and about 16 times as big as the Lake Constance.
Our first stop was on the famous floating islands. The Uros had moved to the islands when the Spanish arrived in Puno to avoid the pain, suffer and dead that awaited them in the silver mines of Potosi. The islands are built of several layers of dried totora reeds and there are more than a hundred of them.
A slow three hour boatride later we arrived on Amantani island where we met our host family for the night. Our host was a nice elderly Peruvian but unfortunately he wasn’t very talkative and his wife barely showed her face. But the hike up to the top of the island was nice and the party in the evening in traditional costumes was a lot of fun.
The next morning we continued with our boat to Taquile island where we crossed the island by foot and enjoyed a local lunch. Here our guide presented us the different hats of the inhabitants and their meaning. This was for sure interesting and provided us with some more insights into this culture before we drove another three hour back to Puno.
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