Lake Titicaca

By Meg C

Hola!

This morning, we woke up pretty early in Puno to catch our 9am bus to tour the Floating Islands (Uros) in Lake Titicaca. What an amazing experience. There are approximately 50 floating islands that house about 2,000 people. These islands are made of floating reeds that are anchored to the bottom of the lake. All structures on the islands are also made of reeds.We were able to tour one of the islands and meet the lovely family that lived there. We even took a mini tour of the islands on the familys Reed Boat. So cool!

The family was so welcoming and even invited us into their homes. They had a little church and even a bar/restaurant. 

My words dont do it justice. Pictures to follow!

PS excuse the punctuation. Working on a Spanish keyboard isnt the easiest ;)

Off to Cusco tomorrow morning!

Banana's Adventure

We have a few hours to kill before our dune buggy and sandboarding tour so we are poolside at our amazing hostel Banana's Adventure. Huacachina is completely surrounded by giant walls of sand dunes. We are all in complete awe of this place. It's spectacular!

Pisco Sour!

Our new favorite Peruvian drink :)

Don't drink the water!

We stocked up on water this morning for our bus ride to Ica. We aren't taking any chances with the tap water!

Day 1

By Meg s.

We arrived in Lima and are now settling into bed at the 1900 Backpackers Hostel. Our flight went off without a hitch (if you don't include Elsa almost missing the flight...) and we relaxed tonight with a few beers and a ton of water.
Lima seems a bit run down so we don't plan on doing much sightseeing tomorrow. Our next stop is Huacachina for sand boarding and dune buggies. Thanks for checking in!

Packing with Ziplocs

By Elsa

A great way to stay organized while backpacking is to use Ziploc bags. For this trip, I bought 2 gallon, 1 gallon and quart size bags for all my gear. I have a top-loading backpack so instead of blindly rummaging around my bag in search of a pair of socks, I can easily reach in and grab my "sock bag". Ziplocs also keep all your gear dry during unexpected rain storms. 

Bulky Bags!

By Meg S. 

After packing up I realized my sleeping bag is much bulkier than I anticipated. It doesn't fit comfortably inside my backpack (too many clothes!) and it doesn't fit in the bottom straps. I thought I was going to be stuck carrying an extra duffle bag for my sleeping bag until I found....SLEEPING BAG STRAPS!! I used them to extend the existing straps on the bottom of my backpack. See pictures below for a tutorial:

DILEMMA! 

I bought these at Dick's Sporting Goods for less than $3!
These are intended to compress sleeping bags but they work as great strap extenders.

Unhook the straps on the bottom of your backpack.
 Loop the sleeping bag strap into the square backpack buckle.
Loop the backpack strap into the square strap buckle. 

Tighten the straps around the sleeping bag. Dunzo.