Our final destination in Peru was Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.
Note to pregnant women: high altitude is a buzz-kill. Avoid if you can.
On this lake there are about 40 man-made islands cut from totora reeds found growing in certain parts of the lake, where indigenous people have lived since before the Incas.
The particular ones we visited are called the Uros Islands a few miles off of the Peruvian coast.
The roots of the reeds are cut from the bottom of the lake and are very similar to cork, providing the base onto which fresh reeds are piled every week or so. Huts are built (out of reeds) on top of the fresh reeds and the people live and cook and fish off of the little islands.
(a model of an island, including the roots)
The islands are small, usually just five or six families, and can be cut and rearranged however they want. So if a family disobeys some of the island's laws, they can just be cut off of the island and sent to join another one.
We got to see some bartering
and try on their clothes
**and yes, bugs did cross my mind, but we escaped uninfested**
and ride in a reed boat.
We also made a stop at the Taquile Islands, which were one of the last parts of the Inca Empire to be conquered by the Spanish.
And which were beautiful.
Baby's first boat ride in the womb.
This looks so beautiful!
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