We took our second short leave from Cusco on a night bus to Puno. This was an eight hour ride and would also take care of a night's accommodation. This particular trip segment decision was difficult. The kids were sick of long travel days and wanted a break. We had a week in Cusco and had just completed our two day trip to Machu Picchu. This is one of the problems with long term travel. You want to see as much as you can, but you need to listen to your bodies and make sure everyone is in a good frame of mind to enjoy what they experience.

I wanted to visit Lake Titicaca and the 'floating islands'. Honestly, I couldn't even imagine what they looked like and I really wanted the family to experience this phenomenon. The lake itself is also quite impressive as the largest in volume in South America bordering Peru and Bolivia. Lake Titicaca is also known as the highest navigable lake in world at a surface height of over 12,500 ft. Just the word Titicaca would make a ten year old snicker. Shockingly, Liam never really flinched. This wasn't enough to convince the family until Bill chimed in with an idea. He said he had heard that some people can arrange for overnight stays on the islands. That news got me excited. Long story short, Bill made a call and we had arrangements to stay with a local family on an island in Lake Titicaca...not a floating island though, but we didn't know that then.

The only reasonable route to Puno was via bus. Michael and I went to the bus station to purchase tickets. The bus and times we wanted were not available, but there was no shortage of buses to choose. The problem was that the buses in Peru do not have a good reputation. There are many accidents each year and occasional banditry, especially at night. We wanted a good company with a good reputation. We booked a nice bus, just not one as nice as we originally wanted.

The kids were pretty excited when they saw the fancy bus. It boasted seats that recline to 160 degrees. We got blankets too. Now all we had to do is sleep.

It wasn't an awful ride. It would have been better if one man hadn't passed gas so much throughout the night. Michael gags when he thinks about it. We were able to get some sleep despite the fumes and we arrived in Puno about 5:00 a.m. Our host was to meet us at the bus station. Other than that, we had no idea what to expect.

We waited about 45 minutes. A man in a traditional Peruvian hat found us. He was our host, Aliquio, and he didn't speak one word of English. There was another man working at the bus station who was trying to get clients for his hostel when we arrived. The two men knew each other and he became our interpreter for the moment.

So it turned out that this island we were visiting was a 3 hour boat ride from Puno. We had no idea. We had so much to learn. There is only one time of day that the boats leave the ports for all of the islands. That was about 7:30 a.m. There is a schedule for when they leave the islands to return to Puno and that would be about 2:30....so we were definitely going to miss our return bus to Cusco the next day. Bill hadn't booked this type of excursion before so we were completely ignorant to how this all worked. We purposely did not book a night bus to return. We thought one was enough and we could chill and watch movies and nap on our return trip in case we didn't sleep well on the island. As Liam would say, we had low expectations.

Now we had to scramble to see if we could change our return tickets for a night bus back to Cusco. The man with the hostel went with Michael to the bus company window. For a fee...surprise...we were able to exchange the tickets and we would return back to Puno the next evening on another night bus back. No one was thrilled about that, but at least we could do the trip to the island now.

We had about an hour to kill waiting for the boat. Aliquio sat with us while we had some breakfast at a cafe in the bus terminal. I think I exhausted all of my high school Spanish knowledge during this time. I could understand more than I could talk, so I asked a few short questions and listened to the longer answers. He is from the island of Taquile, terra ferma, not a floating island so Michael breathed a sigh of relief there....we hadn't known until that point. He has lived there all his life and has just built a new house. He still has the other which is where his mother lives. He has a wife and one son Alex. He told me that Alex was in an accident seven years ago. He was playing soccer in university in Puno and had fallen and hit his head. There was some brain damage and Alex had lost some functioning and mobility in his right hand and leg. Even though all of this information was told to us in Spanish, his feelings of love for his son and comfort with the situation were evident. It was transparent in this short conversation that this man was kind, gentle and proud. We were in good hands for this trip.

We left the bus terminal for the docks. We could walk, but it would be far more fun to take the bicycle tuk tuks.

After our tuk tuk race, we embarked the boat. We waited on that for a good while, but there was entertainment. A local artist entered with a guitar and played some music. It seemed a few passengers were annoyed because they knew he would ask for money when he finished. We rather enjoyed it.

It was probably after 8:00 before we left. The water was smooth and calm. We were fortunate to be blessed with another beautiful day. The boat moved at an unusually slow pace. About 40 minutes later we arrived at Uros Floating Islands.

The ladies of Uros help direct the boat to the island. You can see the height of the island above the water.

It really wasn't what I had expected at all. It was like there was a bunch of massive rafts with huts. I thought I would see more dirt on top, but the surface of each island was covered in reeds. We were allowed to visit these floating islands so we exited the boat and were led to a semi circle reed bench where we would observe a demonstration on how the islands were made. It was all in Spanish so I only undersood some of it. A local man showed us that they cut chunks of dirt and packed it so they were three meters deep. These chunks would get sewn together. They would top the blocks of with reeds placed in a criss cross pattern. I looked up the rest of the information and found out that there are over 40 of these little islands here. Their original purpose was mainly defensive, so they could easily move if they were threatened. Many islands still have watch towers.

After the presentation, we were encouraged to walk around. The people of Uros have no real source of income except for tourism. They make money from their hand made crafts and guided reed boat tours. Their jewelry and knit products were well displayed. We knew we couldn't carry anything large with us, but I let the kids buy a little trinket. Liam got a necklace and Maeve got a bracelet.

We walked around on the unstable ground and marveled at how this is the permanent habitat for a group of people. We examined the houses and the people. This island had a lookout tower which we were allowed to climb.

It was a short, but fascinating experience. Aliquio took excellent care of us and tried to help us with any concerns or questions we had along the way. After our visit, we had another two hours to our our next accommodation...the island of Taquile.

I'm guessing something is stuck in her teeth.