Uros Island and more

In case you heard about the bus accident, we were not involved. That said, today we headed off to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. Long ago, the Inca were taking over every tribe they could. The people who lived around Lake Titicaca decided they didn't want to join the Inca so they took the the lake by building islands out of the reeds. They have been living the same way (basically) ever since. The modern additions are synthetic rope, solar panels, and TV. Some things you just can't live without. We were able to learn about how these people live and how they build the islands, apparently they need to be replaced about every 10 years. We also took a short ride on a boat made of reeds. It was absolutely

fascinating to visit these people and see how they live. My dad had a great time giving the kids little presents, and they loved him for it.

After the islands we headed outside of Puno to see the Sillustani Tombs. These tombs were Inca and pre-Inca burial grounds for the society elite. It was really cool to see this site. I think the weirdest thing was that in front of the most prominent tombs were smaller tombs where "volunteer guards" were buried alive to accompany the ruler into the afterlife. Spooky.

Our last stop of the day was at the home of a local family to see how they live. The home was clean, well organized and homey. I decided that the biggest difference between many of the Peruvian homes and American homes is that we live inside and they live outside.

Following our excursions we were able to get dinner at a nearby restaurant. We all had pizza, which was great. This restaurant was funny because they wanted to trick you into ordering expensive meals so you had to ask for the "tourist menu" which was a four course meal for about $7.
Today was our last day of touring.