They left a FLOATER!!!

Christy and I are no longer traveling together as she went back to Buenos Aires and I took a flight to Lake Titicaca on the Peru/Bolivia border. Thusly, I forged on to unchartered territories.

My first stop was Puno, Peru, which is a large town on the western side of Lake Titicaca. The claim to fame of Puno are the Floating Islands a few kilometers off the town shore that are made of reeds (2-5 meters thick), and have houses, schools and mini shops on the islands. These Islands are located in water depths in excess of 20 meters, and were reportedly erected because of outside invasion (probably Spanish or Google) which forced the locals to flee and set up shop on a few layers of squishy reeds. Sad story really.

However.. Having traveled to different parts of the lake, I have developed a new theory to the existence of the Floating Islands.. The people of Puno realized they were situated on the dirtiest, boggiest, (essentially shittiest) part of the lake, and in desperate need of tourist revenue, decided to park a few islands made of straw, with some likewise straw huts, and place a few people out there everyday pretending that they live on the islands. This is the only thing that makes sense. Because they're located in the middle of nowhere, they're practically living their life on a sinking ship, it is freezing cold and fires are seemingly counterproductive.

Nonetheless, seeing the islands and the reed boats used to bar hop from island to island was remarkable. I can't wait to get my disposable camera developed in 6-8 months time, as is consistent with my film development history.