Our next stop was the city of Puno on the Lake Titikaka. Puno was not too much different from Cuzco, Ollantay, or Aguas outside of location and size; The same restaurants and the same souveniers. However, the Titikaka tour we took was as unique as they come. We started out early in the
morning on a boat to the "floating islands" of Uros. These Islands are not named in a figurative nature as I had originally believed; they are actually floating. The quick o
f it is: the local plentiful reed that grows like a weed in the lake has a root base that, upon decomposition, produces a gas that makes the roots and surrounding soil super bouyant. They take blocks of these root systems, tie them together, lay the reeds themselves on top, and periodically put down new layers of reed. The end result, an honest to goodness floating island with a ground of reeds soft to the step but dry as desert--mostly. The place was exploited by tourism, but they seemed happy enough to have radio and television working on solar powered batteries. Everything was made of this reed, they even ate it. They do not have toilets.
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