Floating Islands

This morning went to visit some of the floating reed islands close to Puno. These islands are very commercial and now live off of tourism, but there are many islands further afield that are totally self sufficient. Even though it was very touristy I was pleased that I went. Each of these little islands houses about 8 families and are purely built from reeds, the islands are then anchored so they don’t float away. As you step on them they are really springy and the reeds are constantly being replaced as they rot from the bottom. The thing that amazed me was that toddlers are wandering around yet these islands are about as big as a tennis court and have huge holes in them! Today they do put on a performance for the daily hoards of visitors but these people do still live there and have done for centuries. They speak their own language and like so many other people obviously live a really tough life… at night it is freezing, during the day it is baking.
I spent the morning with a nice woman from Lima and it is was good that her English and my Spanish were more or less the same and we managed to have pretty good conversations mixing both languages.

I am feeling pretty tired now and am looking forward to getting home. It is nearly nine weeks I have been away and it feels as though it has been very intense. I am looking forward to cooking the food I want to eat, having lots of vegetables, not having to search around for places to eat out all day (which I know sounds great but I just want some food that I like!) The last part of my trip is in Cusco, where I’ll be for about 8 days, everyone says it is an amazing city so looking forward to spending some time there, as well as of course seeing Machu Picchu. I am leaving on the bus tomorrow and the first couple of nights am staying in a hostel of an Australian woman who I met in Iquitos

Post script on food:: I have just been out and had a big advocado salad, a vegetarian salad, chocolate cake and herbal tea all for £3.50!