Day 42: Lake Titicaca, Tequile Island and the floating islands

Our beds finally warmed up by the morning when we woke up to a bright and blue morning sky. Matilda prepared for us a breakfast of pancakes and hard boiled eggs. Every meal, the family had tea set out with fresh mint from thier garden. The mint did wonders with my sinus infection and cough. After breakfast we said goodbye to the family and headed onto the boat for Tequile Island.


Tequile Island maintains most of their culture from hundreds of years ago. When the Spanish came, they made the Incan people on the island wear particular clothes. The men wore black pants, a white shirt, black and white vest, and a white sash around their waist. The women wore skirts and blouses. Today you can see them wearing the same thing but with a bit more color. They also wear hats and head scarves that indicate their marital status. Men with red and white hats are single and men with red and blue hats are married. There is also a hat for men who are engaged to be married, but I dont remember what it looks like. Women who are single have colorful tassle things on the end of their scarves and if they are married, they are plain. I guess this is their form of wedding bands and cuts the small talk if you are looking for women in a bar.

On the Island we walked to main square then to the other side of the island where we ate lunch. The views of course are absolutely amazing. We ate trout for lunch then began the walk down 500 and something stairs to the port on the other side. We boarded the boat again to head back to Puno, stopping on the floating islands of Uros.


The floating reed islands are something out of this world. These people were the first inhabitants of Lake Titicaca sometime around the year 800. They were nomadic people who decided to build islands of the reeds on the lake. They stacked reeds about 1 meter thick then anchored them to the bottom of the lake. They built homes, boats, and everything they needed out of reeds. The people who live there today are the direct descendants of the first settlers and now use tourism as a source of extra income to send their children to school. They are completely self sufficient, trading with other families on the 50 floating islands. Each island holds about 7 families and if there is a conflict, the people just cut off the portion of the island their hut is on and float away.

A girl named Gina of about 16 years, showed us her home. Each hut has a bed in it that they share with one other person and hooks on the walls to hang their clothes. Gina was super sweet and told us she is studying to be a chef. The clothes are very bright and super thick. The clothes look funny on me because I just put them on top of everything I was already wearing. Gina showed us the fish farm and potato fields they had. Then we had a brief lecture on building the islands before we headed back to Puno. It is incredible seeing how these people have maintained a culture and way of living for so many years.