Lake Titicaca is situated on the border between Peru and Bolivia and is famous for being (arguably) the highest navigable lake in the world (3812m above sea level). Even though that definition may be a tiny bit subjective, (there are higher lakes in the world and some boats can navigate in only a few inches of water), you shouldn't question that claim too loudly it if you visit - this lake is home to the flotilla of the Bolivian Navy (pretty impressive, given that Bolivia is landlocked!). Either which way, the lake is visually very impressive and immense, with a surface area of over 8000 square kilometres.

When visiting the lake, you can take a ferry to stay on one of its several islands; you leave your luggage behind in Puno and just travel with a swimsuit, any medicine, plenty of money and an (optional) change of clothing. Many of the ferries also stop at the Uros "Islands" en route.

The Uros Islands

We were then shown around some of the islands and chatted to many of the islanders in Spanish (apparently the Uru language is no longer widely spoken as a first language). The houses were extremely small and were also built from tortora reeds. The elementary school on the islands though was a little more rugged, made from corrugated metal; inside here was a very simple classroom, with little more on the walls than a map of the world. Tourism is now the main industry here, and everyone, young and old made us feel very welcome, although there was an inevitable undercurrent of salesmanship and the knowledge that people feel the urge to reciprocate. One thing that you must do if you visit is bring gifts for the young children - pens and pencils are recommended although, naturally enough, what the children really want are sweets and they really aren't shy about asking you for them!

Taquile Island

There is no transport on the island, so you have to walk everywhere. As we were still adjusting to the altitude, this is an extremely slow and painful process, particularly since this place is very hilly. We wandered around slowly being shown the sights and spent sunset visiting pre-Columbian ruins of local religious significance. As in the rest of Peru, the religion here is a mixture between Catholisism and the old ways. When you reach high places, you often find small rock piles, which are religious offerings and show that that place is sacred.

The main village on the island has an art exhibition centre, where you can view work that has been produced by the people of the island. These people are Aymara, which is both the name of the people and of the language (it is one of three official languages of Peru and is very distinct from Quechua and Spanish, which are the other main languages). The Aymara spoken here is a subtly different dialect from that which is spoken on the mainland of Peru and of Bolivia, and the culture here is correspondingly also different. Weaving and knitting are culturally very important here and are only done by the men. The woven goods are a main source of income here - you can buy the sashes and the hats that the men wear, although be careful, because the patterns and the colours apparently indicate your marital status and availability!

Handling the altitude

Other than one curious property, I didn't notice any effect of the medicine other than it making me feel better (in the interests of neutrality - this would have happened anyway, it just speeds up the process of acclimatization). The one curious property is that it makes carbonated drinks taste flat. I had heard about this, so I tried this out with a bottle of carbonated water, not really expecting anything, and it was indeed true! I could still tell from the flavour that it was acidic, but it didn't feel fizzy in the slightest.

In conclusion