Peru - Puno & Uros Floating Islands

Last stop in Peru was Puno, a town on the shores of Lake Titicaca and close to the border with Bolivia. From Puno we took a half day tour to see the Uros and their floating islands on Lake Titicaca. The Uros are a pre-incan people who settled on the lake to avoid more powerful communities like the Incas.

The trip to the islands didn't get off to the best of starts. The boat pulled out of the harbour so swiftly that one of the boat crew promptly fell off the back of the boat into the lake and spent 5 minutes thrashing around before a group of people managed to haul him onto the pier.

When we reached the islands we were welcomed by the Uros, dressed in their colourful traditional clothes who gave us a demonstration showing how the islands were constructed out of the local reeds. From here on it became a bit of a tourist trap, with the persuasive locals ushering us to the market stalls. We then had a ride on a traditional boat with a few of the local kids singing us songs in different languages before arriving at another island and more market stalls.