Another early morning, we were up at 7am for a tour of Lake Titicaca. At the docks near the lake was an open air market with little stalls selling various homemade and unique items that might appeal to tourists. It was still pretty early however, so only a few of the stalls were open and we figured we'd stop on our way back through at the end of the day.
The tour guide loaded us, along with several other groups, onto a motorboat and we were off to the see the floating islands.
The islands are made entirely of reeds which are carefully bound and pruned into a living island which grows wider and wider every year.
Reed houses are constructed on their surface, small pools may be cut open in their center for farming fish, and entire boats made of the same reeds are moored to it's edges allowing families to travel back and forth from island to island or to the shore of the lake itself. 
Even the pet houses were built out of reeds!
It was amazing to see how they prepared food using open fire right there on the reeds! You'd think if you lived on a reed island you'd avoid fire like the plague, but they have been living their for generations and have learned how to control the flames and keep them contained in their clay ovens.
It was a little scary stepping off the motorboat onto the island and feeling the soft squish of the reeds beneath your feet.
It definitely didn't feel like solid ground, and when the wind kicked up you could feel the smaller islands bobbing around like a boat on the water.
We took a reed boat from a smaller island up to one of the very large islands that housed a school, fish farms and even reed hotels. You'd be surprised at what passed for hotels on the reed islands! A reed hut just big enough for a single reed mat.
I sat down in front of one for a comparison picture and one of the native boys jumped into the picture with me hoping to earn a coin. The native kids were always trying to jump into pictures to earn money, and most of the time it's fun just to let them stay in the scene. However you do kind of have to be careful because it can get out of hand pretty quick.
