On Lake Titicaca

 On Tuesday, June 25th, Mary Joy was feeling better and joined us for our day on the lake.  

We went to Puno's port area, where we got on a boat and headed out onto Puno Bay, toward Uros Island, where the floating islands could be found.  These are made out of many layers of reed mats, on top of root balls, which keep the mats afloat, along with buildings on them.  These "islands" are anchored to keep them in place.  We landed on one of them, called Pachamama, where we were met by its chief and his family and neighbors, living in a small collection of huts.  He showed how the island was constructed and how they lived there.  Then we visited his hut and were decked out in typical clothing.

Then we got onto a wildly-decorated, two-hulled reed boat and went across to another of the floating islands.

We got back onto our group's boat and headed out of the bay onto the great lake, which Peru shares with Bolivia.  On the way, we got a chance to sit in the captain's seat.

We landed on Taquile Island and on the way up the path from the landing we were met by two of the island's leaders, wearing their traditional garb.

We continued up to an open area surrounded by seating, with craft vendors' tables on one side.  There we were treated to music and dance.  Afterwards, we had time to watch women weave on backstrap looms or buy stuff at the tables.

We then walked across the island to the restaurant where we were to have lunch.  

During lunch, Broz showed us the meanings of designs on various types of textiles made on the island.  On Taquile, women weave and men knit.

After lunch, we got on the boat and crossed back to Puno.

That evening, we went into town for a dinner folklore dance show.  There were other tour groups there in the audience,but the dancers were young, enthusiastic and energetic.