How to Float on Lake Titicaca or Anna Get Your Gun

We take the PeruRail Titicaca train from Cusco. This is no ordinary train. We sit in a vintage 1920's Pullman carriage with individual comfy chairs. There is a magnificent open air observation carriage at the rear of the train, where we take many pictures of the journey. It is so Agatha Christie, that we expect to see Hercule Poirot enter our carriage and declare 'Il y a eu un meurtre'. Our journey is 10.5 hours, but we know the time will be occupied with a couple of meals and some entertainment. The meals are good and the Peruvian wine we purchase is pretty good as well. We take many pictures from the observation car, the most amazing being when we go through the middle of one town, Juliaca, where the market covers the rail tracks and as the train approaches, the stall holders just lift up their stalls to one side to let the train pass, then put the stalls back on the tracks once we have gone through! As we travel along, children are enthralled to see us and wave enthusiastically, whilst we wave back in appreciation. The entertainment consists of a traditional Peruvian group and a dancer, who manoeuvres her way down the carriage, wearing very colourful and decorative costumes. She performs slightly different dances each time, with her costumes getting more elaborate each time she appears. She 'encourages' customers to dance with her and Keith eventually succumbs to her persuasiveness. Not sure about Keith's dancing ability, but he said it beat going to the gym for a workout. There was another fashion show, but this time we passed on a purchase. We make a stop at La Raya, that is little more than a handful of houses and a little church, with some venders selling mainly woollen products, but this is at 4319m above sea level, so the highest point on our tour so far! We arrive at Puno, which is not much of a city, but our hotel, Casa Andina, is along the shoreline of Lake Titicaca and ideally suited for our trip tomorrow.

The next day, with our guide, Marco, we take the boat for our excursion on Lake Titicaca, which is the world's highest navigable lake at 3812m as well as the largest in South America. We go to Taquile Island, inhabited by Quechua speaking natives, who continue with their customs, especially handicraft, that apparently is the best in Peru. We decide to purchase a headband for Diane, made from alpaca wool. This was after it was Diane's turn to dance with the locals - much better than Keith the other day. The island is really peaceful, has a lovely little beach and you could imagine just coming here for a week, curling up with a book and nothing else. The boat takes us to Uros. This is an incredible place. Uros is a series of floating islands, made entirely from cut totora, that is a thick reed. The place is inhabited by Uru people, who originated from the Amazon. When the Spanish came in the 16th C, they fled from the mainland to this area and constructed the islands from the reeds. They live in small reed houses with battery powered lighting. They wash in the lake itself. To keep the islands afloat, every week, they lay down new reeds. Because of tourism, they are now fairly able to survive in today's world. We were welcomed by Anna, who showed us her tiny house and the handicraft she makes. She had a wonderful tapestry about her family and life and we decided to buy it, mainly because it looked good but also because it told a lovely story in her language.

We retire to our hotel and many hours later, we were still amazed at the lifestyle of the Uru people.