We Drove Lake Titicaca and survived!

Our Hotel in Lk Titicaca - right on the lake

Love her T-shirt

Farmhouse - note the ceramic bulls on arch - good luck

 Farmhouse kitchen                                                  

We left Arequipa yesterday and flew to a small town, Juliaca, and our new guide met us for our 20 minute drive to Lake Titicaca. But there was one small problem - the people were protesting against the government who were supposed to build a new highway so the people can transport their produce and goods  for sale, and the government has renegged on the deal, so they set up a blockade and were not letting cars thru. This meant we had to take the back road which would be an hour or so longer.  Because of the detour, Ron decided to take us to a sight he usually does on the 2nd day, so off we went to visit Sillustani -- some towers that were built hundreds of years ago, tombs to house mummies.  When the spaniards arrived, they destroyed a lot of the towers and stole all the gold that had been buried with the mummies. What is left standing is beautiful, huge towers on top of a high hill overlooking a small lake.  And the fact that we reached it as the sun was setting made it a spectacular sight. We really felt the elevation - 12,000 feet, once we had climbed up the hill, our fingers and toes were tingling.  Then we stopped at a family farm, and were invited in to see how the farmers live. They have no power, they have well water, and use candle light. Got a good picture of one of the ladies in her Tim Horton`s t-shirt!  Now we were off to the back road....only problem was the backroad was not a road at all, it was the dry marshland of the lake and there was absolutely nothing that resembled a road.  We got stuck once, everyone piled out of the coach, the men pushed and we got back in, keep in mind it is pitch dark - except for a beautiful moon, and cold....we then came to the railroad tracks and everyone had to pile out again to lighten the load, we made it over ok. Then we finally got onto what somewhat resembled a narrow, one lane dirt road, and had a standoff with the oncoming traffic at a sharp corner. After 5 or 10 minutes, some backed up, some pulled over to the side, and we managed to get thru. The rest of the drive was relatively uneventful, and we all admitted it was quite the adventure.
Today a boat picked us up at our hotel, and we visited the Floating Reed Islands, these are a group of islands - man made by the Uros tribe, from the totora reeds of the lake, and all the homes and boats are also made from the same reeds.  The original purpose of the islands was defensive, and there are still many watch towers made of the reeds. We visited one island, where 8 families live and they showed us their homes, and sang for us. They are very friendly happy people. We had a ride on a reed boat, stopping at a small island for a cold Cerveza.  We were told by one guide, that a lot of the families now have land on the shoreline, and just come to the islands during the day for the tourists, but the way I look at it, they are still sharing their history with us.
We left the reed islands and our boat took us to the town of Puno, across the lake from where we are staying. We had a great lunch and did a bit of shopping.
Tomorrow we head to Cusco, and again because of the blockade we are taking back roads, cant wait to see more back roads.
Love to all, stay tuned.....