Reeds, reeds, and more reeds

Thursday, June 24th
Today I was off to visit two very different types of islands in lake titicaca. The first stop was to these islands called the Uros islands - a.k.a the floating islands. There were about 50 islands where the native indigenous peruvians lived on. These man-made islands were made of layers and layers of reeds. The natives took pieces of floating land and tied them together using strong ropes and then packed layers upon layers of reeds on top of the soil. They then anchor the islands in place with sting ropes so the current won't blow them away to the Bolivian side of the lake. The islands themselves were quite facinating. The islands are about 19 meters thick and only a few hundred meters long. The largest island contains 5 families but most contain about 2 or 3. Each island has a president and there is a mayor of all the islands that gets voted into power. There are about 2,000 people that live on these islands and they live their entire lives on these islands. They don't use currency to get things on the mainland, instead they trade the fish they catch for thing they need. It's a truly fascinating culture. They also speak their own native Incan dialect. When we arrived on the islands, the local Incan woman greeted us with song and huge gracious smiles. They were dressed in traditional costume which consisted of a large wool poodle-like skirt, a brightly colored bolero jacket, a knitted hat and woven tassles in their hair. They invited us into their home and dressed us in their local garb. The homes were beautifully constructed of bamboo like wood and thatched roofs. The home was literally a matrimonial bed and some hooks in the wall for their clothes. Basically, it was the size of a new york city apartment. The girl, Karina, who invited us into her home was only 17years old. Karina was the wife of the president of the island and already had one daughter. I bought a handmade handicraft from her that took her a week to create. 
After the floating islands, we headed to another island called Taquile where there resided another idigenous group of Peruvian Incan tribe. This island was not man-made, nor made of reeds. It was however, solely inhabited by the indigenous community. This community of people had lots of rules and regulations about how they live their life. It was very interesting to see...but way too many rules for me. ;)
Later that night, my bunkmates and my new buddies from the boat - Reto and Richard (both Swiss) all went out to dinner and danced the night away! Tomorrow we will all head to copacabana - the Bolivian side of lake titicaca.