Floating Islands

19 September 2017

We woke up bright and early so that we could make our way to the boat on time. I woke up, finished packing, ate my pancakes and jam, and then said goodbye to my host family. We all then trekked down the giant hill to get to the boats, thinking we were late (we ended up being some of the first kids).

After the others joined our group, we all boarded the boats and set off for the next island. After about a hour and a half on the boats, we finally arrived at the island. We unboarded the boats, and all met with the guide. We then had a bathroom break before we started the hike. The hike was not easy, as we were once again climbing up a steep mountain/island thing.

Eventually, I made it to the center of the city (the final destination). We walked around, took pictures, and shopped a bit. We also got to learn about some of the history of the island from the tour guide. After a while, we all walked back down to the boats and headed for our next destination, the floating islands. 

The ride to the floating islands was a long one, but we eventually made it there. We all walked off the boats onto the islands, which kinda sunk underneath your steps. The people on the islands spoke an Incan language, but we nonetheless got a tutorial on how the islands were made and learned a few words. 

After the tutorial, we all took pictures, looked at items made by the islanders, and we all eventually went on a boat ride. I paid three soles for what I thought was a special boat ride, but it ended up not being anything different. We were told that we were going to go to the middle of the lake, where we could jump off, but we ended up just going to a separate island. Here, we once again shopped around at the islander goods, before returning to the original boats that would take us back to Puno. 

Once we arrived in Puno, we all headed back to the hotel and took showers.  We all then headed to Puno’s Rotary meeting. Here speeches were given by the Rotarians and Fred (the boy hosted in Puno). We all recieved pins as gifts from Puno’s Rotary as well. Afterwards, we had free time to explore Puno a little bit. We got food and shopped around. Tiia and I went on our own adventure and ended up walking in the wrong direction to get to the city center (the meeting spot). So we ended up asking a Peruvian lady who was super sweet. Then we all went to eat pizza before calling it a night.