Puno, Peru

We were about to leave when the lead singer invited us to dance in the video. Sophie decided to forgoe her shot at Peruvian pop stardom to video Billy dancing uncomfortably. (Billy here - it only started feeling uncomfortable when the lady singer stopped dancing to start singing a love song up close to me, whilst I had to carry on dancing on my own).

See the making of here - http://www.dailymotion.com/trevallion/video/x5ucx8_making-of-a-peruvian-pop-video-part_fun , http://www.dailymotion.com/trevallion/video/x5ud1k_making-of-a-peruvian-pop-video-part_fun

The next day we took a boat across Lake Titicaca to visit the floating islands of Uros, over forty islands made of reeds and anchored to the bottom of the lake. We visited Chupi: an island named after the flower from the reeds that form an essential part of life for the inhabitants. The reeds are used to built the base of the island as well as the houses and the boats. They also eat the inside of the reed as well as using it for fuel. From the president of the island we learnt that neighbourhood disputes were quickly resolved by simply removing the anchor and floating until finding more suitable neighbours. In a similar way island disputes were resolved by carving the offending household away from the main island! We rode on a traditional reed boat across the lake to another floating island.

In the afternoon we visited Taquile, a Quechuan community where you can tell the age, social and marital status of the inhabitants by the style of their hats.

For pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/trevallion74/Puno

written by  billyandsophie on June 12, 2008 from Puno, Peru
from the travel blog: South America
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