The islands of Lake Titicaca were beautiful and tranquil. From Puno, I took a boat to the tiny island of Amantani with several other backpackers. We stopped at the incredible floating islands of Uros along the way. The islands are made entirely out of reed, which by the way, are also edible. The Uros people have been living on the islands for centuries; they first created them to escape the warring cultures on the mainland. They were a little bouncy to stand on and living on the floating islands, with the intense sun and wind during the day and the harsh, cold nights, is not an easy way of life.
Once we got to Amantani, five of us stayed at the house of the boat captain. We were fed simple but satisfying meals of boiled potatoes and carrots and bread. The island has no electricity, no cars and no roads so life is pretty simple and some food stuffs are scarce. We hiked around the island, which offered incredible views, and at night we went to a traditional Pena and danced around a campfire with the local women while the menfolk played music. We spent the next day at Taquile, a similar island on the Lake.
The Isla de Sol, where the Inca believe that the Sun, Moon and the first Incas were created, is also on Lake Titicaca, but on the Bolivian side. The island was similar to the others but with more Inca ruins, i.e., more stone walls. To get to the Isla de Sol you have to take a boat from the Bolivian town of Copacabana. Copa is a tiny, tranquil town that gets tons of Peruvian and Bolivian pilgrams who these days come for to see a sacred cross in the local cathedral rather than the Inca´s sacred island.
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