From Peru we did basically the same thing. Except this time we booked a tour (instead of going independently). It was cheap and we couldn't be bothered the other way. So we had one night on the mainland at Puno and the next morning we were out to the islands.
Our first stop was the islands of a tribe called Los Uros. They were tired of the war and feuding around the edge of the lake so they decided to live in the lake. They live on floating reed islands. They build the houses, boats and ground out of the reeds, even eat the reeds and now make gringo merchandise from them. A very unusual but now very touristy existence.
Here they are waiting for the gringo boats to arrive. Cool fort.
Making merchandise. The ground is spongey as you would expect.
Very colourful girls singing us a goodbye song.
Reed boats that move and steer quite well considering the're made of reeds and powered by two guys with oars. Apparently a puma's head on the front of the boat on the right.
We then moved onto another island called Amantani where we would stay the night (above) with a family. As much as i will complain about it being touristy, it is very unique and does give you some insight into how they live. Basically no electricity, heaps of agriculture and vegetarian food.
We did get to dress up in local clothing for a local 'discoteque'. But the next morning we were off to our third island. Kind of the same but different to Amantani.
Agriculture is still pretty traditional, including the uniform.
