Yesterday we drove from Chivay to Puno it took around 6 hours with several stops along the way, and most of those stops were for the happy room. Lunch was a picnic by Lake Umayo at 4100mtrs wow what an amazing picturesque place to enjoy lunch. Another 2 hours and we arrived at our hotel in Puno a lakeside city with a population of 120,000. It is known as “the Folklore Capital of Peru:. Founded in 1668 by the Viceroy Count Lemos and naned “San Carlos de Puno” in homage to King Charles II of Spain. In the colonial era, silver for the royal coffers was produced at its Laikakota mines. After a quick check in at our comfortable modern hotel we walked the streets of Puno and hiked up to viewpoint where we were afforded magnificent views of Lake Titikaka and in the distance the snow capped mountains of Bolivia.

The following day were departed the hotel for an exciting ride by cyclo to the pier where our boat was waiting to take us to Tequila Island we hiked to the top (600mtrs) and to a 4100. Tequila Island is a fascinating island where the men wear tightly woven woolen caps and are seen to be always walking around the island knitting the caps. The headgear looks like a floppy nightcap and looks very cute. If a man is married he wears a red hat and if not married a red and white hat. The women spend all day weaving elegant waistcoats, bags, belts, shirts, thick calf length pants. The women wear skirts with 7 petticoats and sometimes in festivals they were up to 20 petticoats under their skirts, looking lie walzing tea cozies. The islands scenery is beautiful their soil is rich and fertile, they grow all their own crops, farm sheep. The children are very very cute dressed in their school uniforms they are taught on the island and a teacher comes over from Puno every Monday and stays for the week. We spent several hours on the island before heading to our next destination of the Floating islands (Islas Florantes). The Uros people are Puno”s major tourist attraction. We were greeted by several families who made us very welcome into their homes. The islands are made up of the totora reeds that group in abundance in the shallows of Lake Titikarka. The reeds are harvested and are used to make anything from the islands themselves. The islands are constucted from many layers of reeds which are replaced every month. The ladies invited us girls into their homes and dressed us in their cultural outfits. They asked us to perform their local dance, well you have never seen anything so funny in your whole life and the photos are certainly not going to feature on the blog. Today was a full day of new experiences fun and laughter enjoyed by all. Look forward to the next adventure Cuzco Bye for now.