On the Monday we were in Puno, we took a morning to go out to the island of Taquile on Lake Titicaca and then to the floating islands of Los Uros. It was a gorgeous day, though a bit chilly.
The island of Taquile, about three hours out on the lake from Puno, was once a slave colony of Quechua people owned by a Spanish fellow. The people on the island were liberated by the Peruvina government at some point, and the owner was run off, but the former slaves stayed on the island. A few hundred years later, the population still speaks almost nothing but Quechua. They make their income mostly from tourism and have their own local bartering economy, using credits based on their contribution to the island.
The floating islands are made from lake grasses. I won’t bore you with the details of how the people gather the blocks of lake grasses, but it is pretty neat. It is a strange feeling to be on a small island with houses, yet to feel it move as you walk. The people, who are Aymara, survive by selling fish and waterfowl eggs to the mainland and by tourism.
Some of us were fairly tired by the end of our jaunt.
Juan David 