I've been visiting South America the past couple of weeks, and nothing made quite as much of an impression on me as this:



On Lake Titicaca, there is a village made up of approximately 43 floating man-made islands. The islands are made from the reeds that grow in the lake - which also serve as a source of water purification and food. Tourism is their main industry, and they put on a marvelously entertaining demonstration of how the islands are built, anchored, and moved or sawed in half when trouble with neighbors occurs.

But the solar panels were what caught my attention. Talk about living off the grid! Unfortunately, I didn't think to check for an open wifi network until I was headed back to my hotel, where the wifi was slow and ungainly.