Puno

I've now arrived in Puno, which is my first stop in Peru, on the opposite shore of Lake Titicaca from Copacabana. There's not very much to see in Puno itself, so the reason most visitors come to the city is to tour the nearby Islas Flotantes (Floating Islands) of the Uros people. The islands are unique in the world, and are built using layers of reeds - the reeds rot from the bottom, so a new layer is added to the top every couple of weeks.

I duly booked myself on the tour, and it was interesting, but it was also one of the most shamelessly touristy things I've ever done. Lonely Planet describes the islands as like a reed Disneyland, which isn't far from the truth.

After a half an hour boat trip we disembarked at one of the 50 or so islands, where we were greeted by about ten Uros people in traditional dress. Firstly two men gave us an explanation of how the islands are built, even building a model to help us understand (one of them joked that they have to anchor the islands to the lake bed to avoid them floating into Bolivia).

One of the families then invited me into their house, where they were happy to pose for photos.

Predictably enough, the hard sell of the souvenirs then began, although they were polite enough when I declined to buy their handiwork. I managed to escape long enough to take another photo from their lookout post.

At the end the island's inhabitants gathered to sing us some songs in a variety of languages (the English song was Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star). That was a bit much to take, and it made me think that these people probably are being exploited by the tour companies.

In the afternoon I had my first South American haircut, and despite a few communication difficulties, I was very impressed. I've never had someone take so much care when cutting my hair - he spent half an hour on it, and it cost me the princely sum of 3 soles (about 70p). In London they'd do it in a third of the time and charge more than ten times as much.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Cuzco, where I'll try to book myself on a trek to Machu Picchu.