Last day of Lake Titicaca (hahahahaha)

Woke up at our family`s home, breakfast at 7:00, then back to the boat.  This was so much fun!  All the "mothers" of the families stood and waved us goodbye until the boat was gone.

On to Taquile Island. There are only about 5,000 residents here, and this is where our guide grew up.  Another hilly walkway to reach the village at the top, and a festival was getting ready to start.  We visited the booths around the square, which are very good quality goods, and not cheap.  However, here you do not bargain, because all belong to a cooperative here  These were a lot different than other textiles we`d seen elsewhere.   

The festival started with villagers carrying saint someone around the square in a procession, and incense, and a priest throwing holy water, and followed by a procession of like dressed men and like dressed women.
The mayor and all of the men in charge were in attendance, and sat on the square watching everything.  Flute players, dancers, drummers came out and danced  in several areas of the square.  Pretty awesome.  But we had to leave after a so bit so we could walk higher and higher to a restaurant noted for it`s trout.  17 Soles ($9.00).  You know how much I like fish; luckily, they also offered a vegetable omelet.  It was delicious, and I even had a bit of Johns trout.  The the tail waving at me would have made it impossible to eat!

We had reached the very top of the island, and now needed to go back to the boat, which was now on the other side of the island.  Not a problem.  540 steps down on  a rough stone staircase with no handrail.  I didn´t go down any faster than I came up!  Finally made it, no falls, no broken bones.

Back to Puno on the slow boat and to our hotel around 6:00.  John didn´t want to wait in line with me at the bank for some change, so I told him where the hotel was (only about a block away), but when I got to the room, he hadn´t checked in yet--so I went looking for him.  Found him a little later, on a street he recognized, but he wasn´t a happy camper.   Dinner (where we were the only customers--scared us a bit) but it was on the second floor, so we didn't know we'd be the only ones eating there.  We lived through that, too.  John wants a hamburger now.