Lake Titicaca, Bolivia and Peru, August 27 to September 2, 2003 — After I finally recovered from giardia, thanks to cipro prescribed by a doctor who made a house call to our hotel room, we headed to Puno, a town on the Peruvian shores of Lake Titicaca. In Puno, we bumped into our friends Barry and Renee (with whom we crossed paths all over South America). All 4 of us then took a tour of Los Uros, a series of floating reed islands inhabited by the Uru people, and the nearby Amantani Island where we were stayed in a local home. It was touristy, but fun as we were invited to join the night’s dance and music activities. The local people are of very small stature, so we felt like giants (see picture of Sherri with two locals — they dressed Sherri in giant hoops skirts which made her look enormous, which was seriously exaggerated when she stood next to the local women). From there we finished our tour the next day on the island of Taquile, where the men famously knit. We finished the week in Bolivia, at city of Copacabana along Lake Titicaca. On the first day in Copacabana, we wandered upon a huge celebration at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana, where priests were blessing new cars. And in the catacombs of the basilica, we watched people use drippings from wax candles to draw their prayers on the walls.
And here are the pictures of the week: