The Uros people build their islands with reed that continuously needs to be replenished at the top because it rots away at the bottom. Such an island is typically 30 by 30 meter or so, and has about a dozen huts, also made of reed. It's a special sight and walking around on such an island is a special sensation because your feet sink away a little, but after 5' I felt I'd done and seen everything. We visited three islands though before turning back.

I'd signed up for a tour to the funerary towers of Sillustani, some 50km from Puno, in the afternoon. They picked me up with a bus full of other tourists and everything went smoothly. A guide was included and once on site I did let him finish his first explanation before I asked him what time the bus would leave and then wandered off on my own to explore the site as much as I could. The towers were built over a 1000 years ago but are not impressive at all, as I knew beforehand, I'd just come here to fill up the afternoon. HOWEVER, the landscape turned out to be absolutely fantastic and I rushed around the whole peninsula the towers are on in 1.5 hours and made lots of great pictures I think. The eye catcher was a big island in the lake (not Titicaca but another) that had a perfectly flat top, it looked very much like that famous Australian rock except that it was green and in the water rather than brown and in the desert.

Back in Puno I had dinner and took my bus to Desaguadero by the Bolivian border. This was the start of my "shaky plan" to make enough time to see Tihuanacu on the way to La Paz and it all worked out (I'm writing this in La Paz), but it wasn't fun at all so that's the last special plan.

The bus was gonna arrive at 21h30, 22h a la mas ultima, but it arrived at 23h30 and I found myself in a random street of a city asleep with no map. Someone standing there said it was dangerous this late, doing a nice impression of gangsters to make his point (I haven't met a local who speaks any English since leaving Cuzco, which is good coz I want a Spanish language bath), and recommended I use a sort of rickshaw to find a place to sleep. How the boy riding it was gonna defend me from gangsters I don't know, but he was a nice guy anyway. The first hotel we went to didn't open the door despite my driver frantically ringing the bell for minutes, but the next one had a (terrible) room.

Now I've seen many wonderful and amazing things during my many travels, but this was the first time I've seen a toilet with a big window. Not a big window to the street, but a big window right next to the toilet's door, and no curtain or anything. I got a picture of it ;) While I was on another toilet the electricity died and it wouldn't come back again. Fortunately I carry my small backpack everywhere - to mountain tops, to the bathroom, to the toilet, ... - mostly to guard my media player with all my pictures on it - and luckily I keep a flashlight in it or I would never have found my room again, it was pitch black. Anyway thus my day ended in Desaguadero on the Bolivian border.