All Ways Travel (Tacna 234, tel. 051/35-5552, www.titicacaperu.com) can also arrange kayak trips, but its specialty is socially conscientious tourism. Managed by Victor Pauca and his entrepreneurial daughter Eliana, a grad of the International Development Policy School at Duke University, the agency offers slightly more expensive trips that are worth it for their quality and community benefits.

A two-day trip to Uros, Amantaní, and Taquile, with an overnight on Amantaní, costs US$25 pp with meals. Educational tours leave on the weekends so that tourists can help teach English, art, and reading to island schoolchildren. But the most exciting trip is the two- or three-day Anapia and Yuspique trip. These islands in southern Lake Titicaca are seldom visited. The agency has a second location in the Casa del Corregidor.

Run by a Peruvian husband-wife team, Edgar Adventures (Lima 328, tel. 051/35-3444, www.edgaradventures.com) focuses on activity. If you want to go visit Lake Titicaca, then Edgar will take you to the uncommercialized island of Ticunata, where you will spend the afternoon farming with locals. Or if you prefer horseback riding, Edgar will take you to Sillustani. Apart from these trips, the agency also offers mountain biking and bird-watching expeditions, as well as conventional tours.

Dozens of agencies offer the traditional day or overnight trips to the lake’s islands and the surrounding sites of Sillustani and Chucuito. Be sure to use a recommended guide, and remember; you get what you pay for.

One reliable agency is Cusi Expeditions (Teodoro Valcarcel 126, tel. 051/36-9072, 6:30 a.m.–8 p.m. daily). It offers trips to Uros; Uros and Taquile; Uros, Amantaní, and Taquile; and to Sillustani.

Suri Explorer (Teodoro Valcarcel 136, tel. 051/36-8188, suriexplorer [at] hotmail [dot] com) offers similar trips at comparable prices. Both of these companies also provide transfers for US$5 to the Juliaca airport.

A final recommended agency is Arcobaleno (Lambayeque 175, tel. 051/36-36-4068, www.titicacalake.com), which works largely with big groups from abroad, but can also accommodate individual travelers.