You can finally tick the box next to the floating and Taquile islands off the Northern coast of Lago Titicaca. The floating islands were well-constructed of reeds and bobbing chunks of rooty turf (they didn’t sink, at least during my short visit) and incredibly touristy. For instance, as our dragon-headed reed boat was leaving, the brightly clad indigenous women sang a few pop songs and waved us off with a cheery “hasta la vista, baby.” I was pretty embarrassed.

Hasta la Vista, Baby:

And then we went to Taquile. I was going to describe the grumpy, clumsy dance between the native people and the gringoes that we witnessed after a trucha lunch, but it was just so awkward and I don’t want you to have to cringe as much as I did.

In short: Islands at the Southern end of Titicaca = definitely worth seeing. Islands at the Northern end of Titicaca = skippable. End complaining.

But! I really liked Puno! It was a cool mid-sized city with real streets and curbs and we stayed in a nice hotel room with free towels and cable television and a maid that came every morning to make our beds. For like 5 dollars a night! And we (again, Elsa and Camille and I) ate a few delicious Peruvian meals (not cuy) and took a few super-radical mototaxi rides and visited a super-boring boat museum.

I took a lot of photos in and outside the mototaxi:

Before I headed a bit Southwest to Arequipa, where I find myself now, about to embark on a little trek into Colca Canyon that leaves at 3:30 tomorrow. In the morning.

Also, Alpaca World(!):

Who’s your favorite alpaca? I know who mine is.