At 6.30, we were up and helping to prepare breakfast; a kind of deep fried bread dough, similar to a savoury doughnut. An hour later and we had to say goodbye to our family, boarding the boat to Uros, the community of floating islands made from Rotora reeds.
The Uros originally built their islands to isolate themselves from their rival tribes, but now live there in peace. Everything on the islands are constructed from the rotora reeds that grow in the lake´s shallows, including the houses and boats.
After returning to Puno, Richard and I went out to find lunch - we ended up in a small local restaurant offering two courses for about 60p!
I spent a couple of hours online - this is where I first heard about Swine Flu - before we headed out together for dinner; our last in Peru. The restaurant that Silvana picked was expensive by South American standards, but it was fairly posh and had live music and dancing. Vikki and I shared a bottle of Concho y Toro Exportacion - a delicious Argentinian red - while I had Pejerrey (Kingfish) Ceviche for starter and Confit Guinea Pig for main. The Ceviche was good but not great; it needed more lime and alot more chilli, but the presentation was excellent. The Confit was served with quenelles of mushroom mash, sauteed vegetables and red wine jus - it was quite tasty, the flavours worked well together, but there was far too much jus and the cuy was undercooked - the meat was not tender enough and it was still fairly fatty. I also ordered dessert, purely because it sounded interesting - Mousse de Muña Sour en Terciopelo de Ayrampo (Andean Mint & Pisco Sour mousse in Ayrampo Velvet) It was, however, easily the most disappointing part of the meal. The Mousse contained too much mint, so as you cannot taste the Pisco, and it was far too dense. Ayrampo is a type of cactus seed, apparently, but I failed to recognise any type of "velvet", whatever it was supposed to be!
Although the music was good (traditional Andean music - pan pipes and guitars), it was too loud - overall though it was a good experience, very different from any other restaurants we´d visited so far.
Following dinner, a few of us headed to the "Positive Rock N Reggae" bar in Puno where the cocktails flowed until after midnight.
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