Day 3 and 4 - May 7th and 8th Lake Titicaca

This was our first day of planned activity.  We left the hotel and were taken to the dock by "Peruvian Limo" .  It was great fun and I seem to have been able to throw my natural caution to the wind and enjoy riding down steep hills and cutting off motor traffic.  I felt like I was in the Amazing Race.  Our limo was second to arrive with only the guide beating us!  We hopped in our boat and started across the lake, passing the Uros Islands which we would stop at the next day on our way back.  It would be easy to feel like you were on the ocean - the lake is so large.

We reached Tequille Island and set off on our first hike.  We were quickly humbled.  As a group we didn't really know each other yet and all tried to keep pace with the guide.  Being at altitude for less than 24 hours it didn't take long before we were all huffing and puffing and agreed that none of us were in the shape we thought we were.  After we slowed down a bit we fared better and were rewarded with a most excellent lunch with a spectacular view of the lake.

After lunch we returned to the boat and headed for our home stay village.  We were greeted by a band and escorted up to the school where the men played soccer against the locals and actually won.  They were rewarded for their win by "getting" to play the other tour group that arrived after us.  Amazingly they won that game as well.  They were helped considerably by our two guides Henry and Martin.

After soccer we were dressed in traditional attire and the villagers demonstrated a traditional dance - then we got to try it.  It was great fun but exhausting at 3,800 metres.  When we had finished partying we retired to our homes for an excellent supper and an early bedtime.  The next morning we were able to help with chores after breakfast.  I'm not sure how much help we actually were but we herded sheep, harvested wheat, and our youngest helped haul the fish for lunch.

Altitude and slight dehydration were kicking my butt by this time and I was relieved when it was time to say good-bye to our family and return to the boat.  On our way back to Puno we stopped at the Uros islands and had a demonstration of how these reed islands were built.  The rest of the day was more or less lost on me as I just wanted to get back to Puno and go to bed.  The boys took an extracurricular hike up to the Condor that oversees the city.