After a long delay, I will try to pick up the story about our Andean trip and hopefully get it finished this time.

After crossing the border into Peru near Copacabana, we continued on a bus to Puno (another 2 or 3 hours). Puno was strikingly different from Bolivia. Peru is hardly a rich country, but in comparison to Bolivia, it felt strangely developed. E.g., while every other Bolivian seemed to miss about half of their teeth (partly from chewing coca, I believe), most Peruvians we saw (in Puno as well as later in Cusco and in Lima) seemed to have most of their missing teeth replaced with artificial ones. Not quite the same as having natural teeth (as is the case for most Brazilians), but definitely a step in the direction of “development.” A surprising number of people spoke English, which they typically used to try to sell us something or to lure us into their restaurants. This constant harassment (you literally can’t make a step without someone shouting “Amigo!” to you), has been the most annoying thing about Peru. It seemed entertaining for a short time but got tiresome quickly and we remembered with nostalgia the more mellow Bolivia.

We got up early next morning and spent some time wondering around Puno, looking at the cathedral, among other things.

Our main event of the day, however, was a strip to the Floating Islands of the Uros (Islas Flotantes de los Uros). As we've been told by other travelers we met earlier, “It’s all horribly commercialized, but you've gotta see it because you aren’t going to see anything like this anywhere else in the world.” I think this turned out to be an accurate description.

A few centuries ago the Uros – a small ethnic group that used to be distinct from the majority Aymara population – decided to escape harassment by the Spanish colonists (or, same say, by the Incas), by moving permanently onto artificial islands floating in lake Titicaca. The islands are constructed from local reed (called “totora”), and require constant re-building as they rot from the bottom. Some people still live on the islands (in tiny reed huts), fishing and raising local birds. There is increasing integration with the near-by Puno, however. (E.g., children go to middle-school and high-school in Puno, though there is actually an elementary school on one of the islands.) It was also interesting to see how some new materials are integrated into old traditions. E.g., the totora boats are not tied together with nylon ropes (which dramatically increases their longevity) and are given extra buoyancy by empty plastic bottles. (The islands themselves are also increasingly relying on plastic bottles for flotation.)