We woke up around 7am... too late to see the sun rise on the lake Titicaca! We had nice pancakes for breakfast and had to quickly pack to go to the port. Before leaving we said goodbye to all the family and left 30 soles to Hermania as a tip and could see that she realy appreciated it. Hermania's husband showed us the way to the port where we met our group. The weather was nice and we discovered how Amantani looked like under the sun. We got back on the boat around 8.30am to go to Taquile.The trip lasted 1h. When we arrived on the island our guide explained to us the island traditions: the men knit hats, the colours showing if the man is single or married and the woman wear a black fabric on their head, the colourful decoration at each corner (pom pon) being small and not so colourfull if the woman is married or big and with lots of colours if she is single. The landscape on Taquile is similar as the one on Amantani, but with more vegetation. Taquile has less inhabitants than Amantani, only 2400 organised in 6 communities. The island is smaller than Amantani, only5.72 km2 and the highest altitude is 4050m. The first tourists arrived in 1971 and the island is now much more touristic than Amantani. There are lots of restaurants and between 11am and 2pm the main place of the village is full of tourists surrounded by young girls trying to sell them bracelets for one sole. Our guide introduced us to the family we will stay for the night. Straight away something was wrong as the couple was fighting, we understood later that it was because the other girl of our group staying overnight went to another family. We had a nice lunch with our group in a restaurant with view on the sea....oups on the lake! After lunch we walked around the island enjoying the beautiful landscapes. However the weather became cold and windy by the end of the afternoon and when we went back to the pueblo we discovered a ghosts town. Most of the tourists leave the island after lunch so all the restaurants were closed, the main place and the streets were empty... nowhere to have a warm tea! We enjoyed for a while the beautiful view on the lake and watched some kids playing on the main place with whatever they could find: plastic bags, empty plastic bottles... We soon returned to our room as the weather became very cold. We had dinner with the family but were very unpleased by their behaviour. It was better than in Amantani as they were interacting more with us but very soon they started to push us to buy souvenirs. They wouldn't take no for an answer. After a quick "expedition" to the very rustic toilets (see picture) we went to bed with the aim to wake up on time to see the sun rise on the lake Titicaca.
