Lake Titicaca is more than just a great name!

Hey folks...well, I´ve given it the old college try...got some great photos today, including beautiful vistas from the incredible Island of Taquile out over Lago Titicaca with the snowcapped mountains in the distance, the ancient Inca and pre-Inca terraces, still in use in the foreground, the deep azure of the incredibly huge lake in the middle'ground...hard to picture? Well, sorry, uploading a photo seems near impossible unless I want to upload all my photos to this business centre computer in the hotel. And doing it in Spanish adds a nice little challenge to the whole exercise. Given that we have to be up at the literal crack of dawn tomorrow to make our flight back to Cuzco, and then the car and driver ride to Ollantaytambo to catch the train up to Aguas Calientes...well, I have packing to do! So the best is just to stick with words for now, and upload the occasional photo to my Facebook page, until I figure this thing out. Daliah and I have had an amazing time on Lake Titicaca. We have a stunning view of the lake from our room, and we love to watch the fishermen, birds, and excursion boats making their way amongst the reeds that populate this part of the lake. It is truly an incredible sight. Today we saw both hunting and fishing taking place from the same boat! One man fired his musket at a seabird, while the other was fishing at the same time! We had a great tour today, took all day, and we learned a great deal about the cultures and customs of the Amerindian peoples of the islands of the lake. We were served a fabulous lunch by a family on the Island of Taquile, and we shopped for the most beautiful knitted and woven goods in their market place. Before that we stopped for about an hour and met the Uros people of the floating islands. It is a strange and ´¨touristic´thing to do, but it was all pretty amazing. We had a nice siesta on the boat back, too! Taquile Island is normally 4 hours from Puno´s harbour, but we booked ourselves on the ´rapida´ tour, and that brought us back in less than half the time. All good! We have enjoyed two fantastic dinners right here in the hotel, and its been a great little side trip, really worthwhile. The people of Peru have been friendly, warm and kind, going out of their way to be helpful. And we have been marvelling at the strong family bonds we see everywhere...there is much more to say, and no more time tonight. Signing off for now, Deb. PS, we are hopeful the guys are doing well up there on the Inca Trail! Today was, according to what we read in Frommer´s, the most arduous for them. By now they are sleeping soundly in their tent. Today they had to climb the two steepest mountain passes. They would have walked for about 8 hours or so, I think they said. So they are in our thoughts. I will ask Lorne to blog a bit about that experience when they are back ´down´and when he is coherent enough to write something. I´m sure they are having an amazing time too. xoDeb.