Puno - Llachon

From Iain: July 21 - After an excellent buffet breakfast in the glass-enclosed rooftop cafe of Hostal Pukara in Puno, we joined a mostly French tour group going to the Uros floating islands.  After a short trip by boat, we docked at one of the reed islands and were treated to an hour-long guided tour by the guide and one male and three female inhabitants of the island.  We'd been lead to believe that the islands now suffer from excessive commercialization and, yes, there were swarms of tour boats all over the forty or so islands, but the tour we enjoyed seemed respectful and well-done.  Tanya and the girls couldn't resist taking a short ride on one of the large reed boats, while I remained on the island to take a bunch of photos.

Uros Floating Islands

After leaving our reed island, we continued on with the tour boat that was going to Isla Amantani, but instead we arranged to be dropped off at Llachon on the Capachica Peninsula, which is more off the beaten track.  There we checked into a guesthouse owned by locals Valentin and Lucila (which Tanya had prearranged through the Hostal Pukara in Puno).  This included a really good lunch, dinner, and breakfast, which Sierra enjoyed too (despite the following photo caption).

I thought I was getting a grilled cheese sandwich

We spent the afternoon exploring the surrounding area and hiking up to a lookout above Llachon with incredible views of Lake Titicaca, including across to the 6,000 m (20,000 feet) plus Cordillera Real in Bolivia.