After our time on the Island of the Sun, and several more days relaxing in our amazing cabana, we crossed over to Peru and made our first stop in Puno. Puno is a much larger town than the Bolivian counterpart of Copacabana. It is a bustling little city, with few of the colonial charms that other popular Peruvian towns are known for, but we like it for it's character.
After one night we headed off on a two day tour of the islands off the coast from Puno. Each of the islands is populated with a different indigenous people-group. The first stop we made was to the floating islands of the Uros. These islands are man-made completely out of reeds that grow in the lake and can be moved if desired. In fact, most everything on the island was made out of reeds, which they also eat as a snack. The local people of Uros at one time fished out of reed boats, although they now use small metal ones. There's a lot of interesting history and there's little else like them in the world, but unfortunately the islands have become so touristy that they seem to barely resemble their original selves.
We stopped over for about 1.5 hours; however it was an interesting experience on many levels. Being the closest islands to the town of Puno, and also being such a unique culture, the islands have been a major tourist draw for a while. We could see this reflected in the setup of the islands. The 50+ islands were stationed in two neat rows that boats could pass down. Each island could take one tourist boat at a time and was equipped with a tower to view the lake from, a circle of reed bails to sit on, model size town to conduct demos, and stands of handicrafts to sell. After the demonstration, the women would show you their one room houses and outdoor kitchen (they also had a small covered one for when it rains), and then show you the various products they make, only a few of which haven't been copied in every tourist stand in Puno. You could then take a ride on a reed boat for a little extra cost. Even the reed boats have been touristified by adding dragon heads and tails when the original ones were plain. Their culture was one of the more unique ones we have seen on our trip, but we feel we may have seen it too late as it was extremely hard to tell what was original and what has been added for the benefit of our camera, which was probably most. We also felt the experience was somewhat exploitative for the locals.
From there we traveled 3 more hours to the island of Amantani, which was the highlight of our time on the tour. It's a much more culturally intact experience than that of the floating islands. On Amantani we signed up for a homestay with a local family. The family had a small hospedaje in which we stayed, but they still wanted to give us a personal experience as if we were staying in their actual home. We were also lucky enough that the husband and wife spoke Spanish in addition to Quechua, the local language. We were able to have some really interesting discussions with them about traditions and culture.
The husband, Edwardo, took us on a personalized tour of his community, telling us about their traditions and customs. He walked us through their local fields and he told us about the plants they grow, which they do not sell but use solely for subsistence, trading only with other islanders. The hills of the island are covered in pre-Incan terraces and the houses are surrounded by flowers. We learned during our walk that all of the plants on the island are used for food or medicine. Not one flower was planted just for looks. After the walk we “helped” cook supper (peeling some beans and trying to keep out of the way) with the wife, Juana, and her mother. The kitchen was a one room clay hut, the sink was a faucet and bucket, and the stove was a wood-fire clay box. The food was amazing.
That evening, the community put on a little party for all the visitors where they dressed them in the traditional clothes and danced in the community meeting hall. We stayed only long enough to get a few pictures and headed back to get some sleep for the following day. The homestay experience felt very authentic and we were lucky enough to be with a couple who really opened their lives up to us to see for such a short time.
After breakfast we traveled by boat to our last island, Taquile. The land of Taquile looks very similar to Amantani; however, we could instantly tell the difference in the culture of the people, particularly their dress. While the basics of the clothes were similar to Amantani, the details stood out. On Amantani the women wore black shawls with detailed embroidery at the bottom. On Taquile the black shawls had large puffballs at the corners instead. At lunch, our guide explained some of the differences in the clothing and the social status that each item reflected. When a young man was looking for a girlfriend, the top of his hat flops over to the side of his face. When he is dating, it flops back. When a man is married, he is able to carry a colorful pouch around his waist. We found their dating customs very interesting. When a couple is dating and thinking of marriage, they are obligated by the community to actually live together for several years first to make sure that the marriage will work, since there is no option of divorce later. If they decide not to get married, there is no problem. In fact, if they have a child during this period and the couple breaks-up, the child goes with whichever family has more money, not necessarily with the mother. We spent about two hours on Taquile, but have very few pictures to show, as the local community members discourage tourists from taking picture of people without permission and a tip (as we might want if hundreds of tourist were traipsing through our neighborhood with cameras!)
All in all, we were able to see some interesting culture and the islands and the lake are beautiful. It's interesting to see the difference between the incredibly “commercialized culture” on the floating islands and the more “authentic” lives of those on Amanatani and Taquile. You can really see both the benefits and drawbacks of tourism, which we live on the tourist's side every day. We then spent 2 more chill days in friendly Puno before we head off to Cuzco on Tuesday.
As our time is dwindling down, we had one last big “must do” on our list: hike in the Cordillera Blanca. As part of the Andes, the Cordillera Blanca has 22 mountain peaks that tower over 6000 meters (19,685ft). Everywhere you look you see white, snow capped mountains crammed together, separated only by dramatic valleys, lagoons, waterfalls, and hot springs. 
The first day was a relatively easy 5 hour walk to the campsite, where we got the first look at some snow as the clouds drifted around the mountains. We woke up before dawn the 2nd day to start our hardest day, hiking 900 meters up in elevation (2,952ft) over the pass and into another valley. The hike up was challenging because of the packs, but our work was well rewarded when we crossed over the pass and saw the steep valley below, surround by enormous mountains on each side. The 3rd and 4th days were a breeze as we continued to walk down the valley, passing beautiful lagoons and crazy high waterfalls. 
We were fortunate enough to have pretty good weather as we are still in the end of rainy season here. Although it rained almost every night, we were able to at least get our tent up, and usually get dinner made before getting soaked. And although we may have missed seeing all of the mountains in their glory at one time, we were ecstatic to see them individually as they would occasionally peak out from the almost permanent shroud of clouds. 
