We survived the overnight bus from Cusco to Puno
Straight through the Arc is Bolivia. You can see the snow capped Andes mountains in the distance. Both Bolivia and Peru border the lake. You can leave one shore and arrive at the next country.
Our lodging at the Oro Island community. See the layers of reed that holds up the whole lodge.
View from Tanquile Island. Plenty of sheep, llamas and alpacas.
Group picture at Oro island
Scenic reed boat ride
Vergena and Andrea bought local art. We called them the grandma and the mom.
Group picture with the family who hosted us. Their five year old loved to laugh with us. They are a very nice family.
By Mya
After a long, I mean a LONG over night trip on the bus, we went to a hostel where our taxi picked us up. After our taxi picked us up, we went to the Titicaca lake, the hotel is made out of reed straws, our
baños (bathrooms) has sand where we should cover our bowel movements. Our room was made out of reed and we had great views of the lake. We stayed with a local family who ran this hotel. Walking around on their “island” was a different experience. The ground was not firm. It
was soft and squished as we walked around. If you stood long enough in one place, you kinda feel like you're sinking.
We went out on a tour to visit the Oro Island communities and our tour took us an hour and half to an island called Tanquile. Tanquile is one of the most beautiful islands, also well known
for ruins, and views of Bolivia. We went hiking to the top and ate lunch at a host family’s place and met a lot of people who lives in the island. They were selling bracelets, alpaca dolls, hats, scarfs, earrings, necklace, and many other things. The altitude
was 12,500 feet and we went all the way to the top where there was a plaza. The island has an old way of farming which each layer of the ground helps the water go down to another.
Once the tour was done, we went back to our hostel, took a 30-minute nap, woke up and went on a boat that was made out of reed. That was fun!
Interesting facts about Lake Titicaca, there are more than forty floating islands, and largest island is for women weavers. People have to add reeds every week to prevent from sinking in the water. The lake is the second
largest in South America and the highest lake in the world. Also Lake Titicaca people has the specific colors of hats to wear when they are single nor married.
That’s all for today folks!
Note: this island stay was rich experience for us all. Staying with this local family was really nice. The family consisted of three generations from the grandfather who was the master of their little home community
island to the little 5 year old boy, they enjoyed hosting us and were very gracious hosts and very happy to have us visit. The kids enjoyed experiencing life out at Oro island communities. Something they will never forget. We left with farewell gifts made
out from straw from the hosts.
