If I had a Boat

...I´d go out on Lake Titicaca...and we did!

After watching the sunrise over the lake during breakfast, we boarded a boat with 15 other eager tourists and set out for our day on the world´s highest commercially navigatable lake. Our first stop was the floating island of Uros. This was one of the most unique things I have ever seen. The Aymara people construct these islands out of reeds that grow abundantly in the lake. There are about 35 islands, but this number varies. Stepping onto the floating island felt like stepping onto a water bed of hay. After a brief educational lecture from our guide (most of which I understood in Spanish, but was happy he repeated himself in English), we walked around the island which was about three times the size of my apartment. All the people were dressed traditionally and there was a little girl who was about 2 who kept us entertainted. After a ride in a traditional reed boat paddled quietly by one of the men we arrived at a more ¨commercial¨ island that was complete with a small store and restaurant. We then boarded our boat and headed off to a natural island of Taquile. The trip accross Puno Bay took us about 2 hours and it made me realize just how enormous this lake is.

Once we arrived to Taquile, we hiked up to the top of the island and learned about the traditional weaving and dances of these people. The high altitude made us feel like we were really out of shape. At a local community house, we enjoyed the most scenic lunch ever (including some more delicious quinua soup)! We were over looking the lake with the beautiful blue water with well as snow-capped mountains in the distance in Bolivia.

After lunch we hiked back down the other side of the island to meet back up with our boat. As we walked carefully down the 500 vertical steps, I thought to myself how happy I was to be going down these and not up. There were so many picture perfect moments and I just could not capture them all..nor do the pictures do any real justice to the majestic views.

Once our boat arrived, our guide was nowhere to be found. Luckily, the captain of the boat was there, but after a considerable amount of time waiting the captain informed us that we had to leave. Our guide would be left on the island for the night! (what?!, I mean what if that had been us..would they have just left us??...oh, so glad it was us!)

Well, poor Herman was left while we cruised the 3 hours back to Puno. It was unbelievable watching the sunset over Lake Titicaca. As I sat on the top of the boat with the cool wind blowing in my hair, I thought to myself, ¨this is the stuff adventures are made of!¨

If I had a Boat, Lyle Lovett