Up early to make it to the docks by 8 for our boat ride out to the Uros floating islands. There are 87 floating islands, these islands are made from reed plants tied together, then a layer of reeds is added alternating direction till a height of 2 meters is reached. The buildings are placed on an additional layer of reeds.

After we arrived we were given a brief history of the islands and their construction. It takes approximately 5 months to build one and they last for 30 years. We then donned authentic costume and toured the island.

After our tour we took a reed boat, rowed by two of the women to another island for coffee and to continue on to our destination.

The boat ride to our final destination took 2 1/2 hours, on the docks we were introduced to our Mama who took us home and introduced us to her two children Yong and Flora Maria .

After getting cleaned up it was time to do our chores. These consisted of sorting fava beans, moving the sheep from one pasture to another (not as easy as it sounds) and repairing a stone wall. It was well worth it just to see one of our group members hopelessly entangled in the sheep’s ropes.
When we returned we played with the two children until it was time for our volleyball match. It was us versus the villagers and we were way over matched.

After the game we dressed in authentic costume for dinner and helped out by preparing all the vegetables. With the temperatures hovering around 0 in our basic mud brick room, it was nice to be given a hot water bottle to warm our beds.

The evening thunderstorm was some nice entertainment but it went on too long and the rain on the tin roof made sleeping difficult.