Titicaca. Say it. Say it again. Snickering like a 7 year old boy, eh? We managed to avoid all these jokes during our jaunt out on the lake. It´s incredible really... we took a tour out to the islands that lasted two days and one night. The first place we visited, although only for an hour or so was one of the floating Islands of Uros. So get this, this community lives on about 70 floating Islands in the reeds in one particular area of the lake... they build the islands out of reeds, build their houses out of reeds, eat the reeds, and make crafts with them... They also build these great big canoes with reeds. I am not sure these are the same reeds used to build the boat that Thor Heyerthal used to cross the atlantic in the 50´s, but it was pretty rad, anyhow. There were chickens, ducks, cats, and even an ibis on the island we visited. The thing that haunts me the most about this is the thought of the inner-life of such a community... I mean, we all know how tumultuous a small town or city is... all the secrets below the surface... the love triangles, the murders, the miracles, and the mysteries... I cannot help but be awed by a community that lives entirely on floating islands which would vanish if they did, and to think of all the things we will never know about their secret lives... wild!

And then we went to the Island of Amantani, where we stayed overnight in the home of a lovely couple named Flora and Salvatore... we did the requisite mountain climb up to the Island´s shrine (actually one of the TWO shrines) to the Pacha Tata, or Father Earth... Later in the evening we were cajoled into the requisite tourist ritual of dressing up in traditional garb (which looked ridiculous on us) and dancing to folk music... not bad fun, in the end... Gotta wonder who was the entertainment and who the entertainer, though! The stars were incredible... vivid and bright, and scattered across the sky... also some familiar constellations in unfamiliar positions (Orion on it´s side, for example). I managed to wow some of the local kids with sleight of hand, too!

On the next day (yesterday), we visited Tequile Island, and toured about it before having a fine lunch of fresh trout... Then back via boat to Puno, where we arranged various things, did various errands and prepared for the next leg of our journey: to Arequipa and the worlds deepest canyons. Our bus leaves at 3:00 and I guess if we can we are going to go visit the 19th century steamboat that they have here in Puno...

I should mention another cool thing we saw on the way to Puno from Cuzco was the museum in Pukara. There was a civilization here that may have been the Mother Civilization of the Incas... they had lots of intricate carvings and statues... in particular was ´the Great Head Cutter´; an eerie fellow with a collection of severed heads from his various sacrificial victims.... it was pretty spooky, but neat nonetheless...

-Peter out!