A review of our we booked our overnight trip in Lake Titicaca.

We booked our trip through Edgar Adventures, they are based out of Puno and have good reviews. We originally paid $10 extra to have a "small group" ... one word of advice, don't ever pay extra for any small groups ... on any hand, they refunded the $10 after the tour.

The bus will pick you up at 7:45am and you meet as a group at the port to board the boat. They advise you to bring a gift of food for your host family, and you can buy this at the port. We took a bag of dry pasta, a bag of rice and a can of condensed milk. The family was very very happy to receive this.

The first stop on the boat is about 30 mins from the port, at one of the many small islands that make up the Uros Islands. This is a group of floating islands in the lake - truly amazing!!! You stay here for ~ 1 hour. The local people of the island do a demonstration on how the islands are built and maintained. It is the strangest sensation, walking on the reed, it feels like a water bed. There are 100's (I think) of floating islands, so you will only get to visit 2 of them. The people on the first island were kind enough to welcome us into their homes, which are very small huts made of the same reeds as the island itself. The houses have to be rebuilt each year. One thing that was very surprising to see, was inside one of the houses there was a TV and a radio!!!! Years ago the government donated solar panels to the islanders, and this is where they get their power. These islands are amazing, a must see. Then you keep going for ~3 hours by boat - this can be a rough trip, and long, so be sure to take a book and sit outside in the back of the boat.

Once you reach Amantani, you get introduced to your host family. Normally it is 2 - 3 tourists with each family. You go back to their homes, and get situated. They speak some spanish but mostly Quechua, for this reason, I would get the Lonely Planet Quechua Phrase book. Quechua is nothing at all like Spanish, not even similar, so we did use the book a little bit.

The house we stayed in was made of adobe and appeared to have been added on to many times. Our family had 2 rooms that were used for this type of tourist visit.

There is an optional 1 hour hike, where you go to the highest point on the island to watch the sunset and take it the beautiful vistas.

You have dinner at the families house - normally is soup, main course (which is cheese, potatoes) and of course tea. After dinner, the family brings out the traditional dress for us. They have a 'party' at the community center. All of the tourists get dressed up in the dress of that island. The woman wear the bright colored tops and shirts (with a very tight band around the waist to keep the skirt up!!!) and the men wear a poncho and the traditional hat. The dance was pretty fun, although I must say dancing at that altitude can leave you winded very quickly.

We all slept very soundly that night, the cold air, all the dancing and exhaustion. After our breakfast (at 7:30), we all met down at the dock again to get back on the boat to go on to the next island, Taquille.

It is 1 hour, I think, to get to Taquille, again it can be rough. Once you get off the boat, it is a long walk up to the town, close to an hour, the first part is very tiring, but you can stop and rest along the way. After the first 15 minutes of strenuous climb, it evens out, and is a beautiful walk.

Taquille is a beautiful island, and has a central Plaza. The dress here is very different and distinct from Amantani. One interesting thing to point out, is that all of the men here knit! They all have wool around there necks, in their pockets and are always knitting some sort of hat, etc. It is fascinating. They also were interesting hats that all have different meanings: single, married, chief, etc. We had a nice lunch on the island, where they served trout or a vegetarian option - eggs. We stayed on the island a few hours and then started the walk back down the other side to get to the boat. The views from the town are amazing, beautiful.

The boat ride back to Puno is approx 3 hours, and again, it can be rough.

I would definitely not miss this overnight stay in Lake Titicaca, it was a wonderful experience.