Floating islands and Lake Titicaca

Wifi signal in Peru , is what they say about the women over here, changeable and unpredictable! It is like in olden days when you would dangle dangerously from high points to try and get a signal, or you have it one minute but then it disappears in an instant. It seems to come on in the middle of the night and you suddenly hear the ongoing of email alerts, usually Dorothy Perkins or matalan trying to tempt me with some offer. Strangely, David who sleeps through anything, is awaken by this and gets a tad annoyed shall we say!

We paid a visit to the floating islands of Uros, to get there we had to go from our hotel by bicycle tuktuk to the local port. We had a race with the other people in our team. Felt a bit sorry for the lad who got us, the others are all slim and didn't pack much, whereas me and David, need I say more! 

Anyway our cyclist did a fantastic job but at one point did get off the bike and just push, I think we came third, seems so long ago now. It was great fun though as there was a lot of overtaking and cutting off corners etc, all of us squealing like kids.  The boat ride to the islands was lovely although elegant as ever I fell getting into the boat but people were impressed that I didn't drop anything I was carrying. We had to jump from boat to boat to get to ours, well that was just an accident waiting to happen wasn't it. 

The houses on the floating islands which are made entirely of reeds. There were 7 families living on the islands we visited, all brothers and sisters can you imagine that, no escaping from each other. Each island also had to vote who would be president of their island, so the brothers and sisters had to vote for each other! 

This is the president and one of his brothers showing us how they made the island, he opened a flap in the island and put his hand in and it was straight to the water, so the reeds are not very deep. Every time a boat went past, the island would ripple and bob with the movement. Anyway the president took a shine to me and David, it must be because of our regal air! He invited us to his house ,which is one room and then gave us outfits to put on. I look really chubby in mine but in fairness I do have my hoody on and they gave me three layers of skirts to put on on top of my trousers. David as always looks very fetching in his outfit, especially the hat. This is us posing with the president and his wife. 

We then went to another island which was beautiful but had a very steep path leading up to the village square. On the island couples live together for a couple of years to see if they will get on before they get married. The only rule is if they have children in that time they have to get married.once married they can not get divorced. 

After this we were back on the boat and travelled to a home stay on a nearby peninsula. The day before we went to the local market to buy gifts for the family we were staying with, fruit veg, pasta, rice etc. On reaching the peninsula we had to walk for what seemed like miles uphill to a meeting point all laden down with our rucksacks and groceries, I struggled. We then met the man of the family we were staying with and  we had a game of football at very high altitude. The boys in the group loved it and really got into it, three of them ruined their trainers, including David, as they were playing on uneven concrete and it was a very hard ball! The girls didn't play from the start but we piled on just to make it harder for the other team to score, it worked and we won. The locals then did a dance for us, we were then given more costumes to wear and we had to copy what they did, was a laugh. David was happy as Larry , as he had a tassel to twirl.  After the dance we headed to the farms we were staying in, in the pitch black. Well, oh my lord, we started and went higher and higher, boy did I struggle, and we could see other members of our groups leaving us as they headed off to the farms they were staying at. I asked the man we were with where his house was and he pointed to a tiny speck of light at the top of the hill. Bless him though, he did keep stopping to give me a rest and eventually him and David were carrying everything and I had the torch. It took us about half an hour to climb up while other members of the group were in their farm in a couple of minutes. 

This is me with the daughter of the family called Garcia and their dog Rambo. In the morning we had several jobs to do. We helped to make the fried bread for breakfast, fed the pigs, but David managed to pour pig swill on the wee boy in the family, who was 4 years old. The poor boy had to dry his shoes out in the sun, we then had to separate the chaff from the wheat. We were then taken further up the hill to see the view which was beautiful. The family also had sheep,a cow, chickens and a donkey

 We had a lovely time on the home stay,which we had been nervous about as the family had very little English. The little boy found David's facial hair hilarious. It was so peaceful and calm on the hill, a hard life in some ways but everyone seemed happy and at peace.