After Arequipa, the El Ciudad Blanco, we took yet another bus ride up a bit north to Puno, the major Peruvian town on the shores of Lake Titikaka. It was, and continues to be my favorite place we have visited. It is a smaller town nestled in a bowl which overlooks the crystalline blue waters of the highest navigable lake in the world. Even though there was a festival for the Virgin De Candelaria....or something like that....there are a lot of parties for virgins around here......we quickly found a room in the hostal La Florida. After taking a bike-taxi-cart-thingy up the hill from the bus station-amazing what a man on a bike can do with 2 grown women and their gigantic backpacks! I felt like I should have eaten a little less ´arroz y pollo´ when I looked back and saw him sweating and panting under our Western baggage and booties!
The first day we mostly just walked around....a lot. First sun burn of the trip!.....at 12,500 ft above sea level, it is an easy feat for a boarderline transparent Alaskan to accomplish. We found one of the many tour agencies and promptly booked a boat ride and visits to 2 of the islands on Lake Titikaka. 30 Soles......9 dollars, plus a $1.50 tip, got us an entire day out on the lake and an absolutely scruptious traditional meal on Tequile Island of a local white fish, papas fritas and a finishing touch of coca tea.....for the altitude, of course.
During the wanderings of our first day, we came across the local market, which went on and on and on.....including everything you can imagine: from carrots to lamb heads (ayla wasnt too keen on hanging around these types of things....as i stared on in amazement of the complete lack of refrigeration, which i would later learn to be completely the norm)...to skirts and shoes and potatos, oh my! It was quite a beautiful, boisterous sight. Naturally, we got stared at.......not like a ´why are you here, this is our place´stare.......more like a ´dear god those women need to put on some sunscreen and a gigantic sombrero!´kind of stare. Two local women actually stopped us and told us we were going to burn if we didnt do something about it.....little did we know.....
That night we also found the most wonderful street close to our hostel, with earrings (feeding our bangles obsession....one sole per pair, who wouldnt?!) and pastry stands mixed in with meats-on-a stick (dont ask what kind) topped off with a tasty potato on the end. I dont think vegetables exist on shishkebabs (spelling?) here.....or much of any greenery for that matter. We took in dinner at a great little local place ´lomo´something....salado maybe. Beef stirfry for all intents and purposes. And we decided to get a good night´s sleep for our 6am pick up for our Lake Titikaka adventure!
Even with half-opened eyes and seats in the back, our boat ride to the Uros Islands, or Floating Islands, was very beautiful. Our boat took a path through the lake´s reeds and stopped at a floating check point to pay the tax into the land (water?) of the floating islands. We stopped at the first island and got out onto the soft bed of totora reeds of which the islands are made of. The islanders keep replinishing these reeds as the bottom layers disintigrate into the lake......i like to think of this manner of living as an integrated part of the ecosystem, constantly replenishing the lake with nutrients while taking more to replace what has been given back. We sat in front of our guide and a large, intricately painted map of Lake Titikaka framed by an Uros woman weaving in traditional garb, and on the other side, the cutest little girl i have ever seen dressed in the most brilliantly colored skirt, shirt, vest and hat I have ever seen outside of the pages of national geographic. The presentation began with the little girl singing in Aymara, their conqueror´s language (the Ayamaras), then in English.....the language of the tourist conquistadors.....which made me feel a little strange.....most everyone else seemed to enjoy it-how can you deny the cuteness of a four year old girl singing Mary Had a Little Lamb.....but i still felt a bit wary of the situation....as if taking a tour boat to their home wasnt unnatural enough, listening to a little girl perform in a foreign language to her while the other neoprene/khaki zip-offs/¨Machu Picchu¨-clad tourists snapped photo after photo......needless to say it was a bit apart from any other human-human interaction I have experienced.
Despite this curious situation, I enjoyed the scenery and learning about a group of people I had barely even thought to have existed. One woman showed Ayla and I her house, where she and 5 of her children stayed.....it was approximately the size of my room now in Cusco, maybe a bit smaller.....but looked very cozy, just the same, with tapestries hanging woven by her and presumably others in the community, and even had a little solar-powered television in the corner-an absolutely amazing sight in such a drastically different environment. I wonder if she likes Tina Fe´s impersonation of Sarah Palin as much as I do......
Following the Uros Islands, who´s description can only be given justice in pictures (which i can share with you if you send me your email), we reboarded the boat for a 2 hour ride to the Island of Tequile. Upon climbing up a long, winding cobble stone ramp along the side of the island, we encountered two little boys who bombarded Ayla as I was taking a picture of her......they stuck around to be in a photo with me, and then told us their photos cost one sole........Ayla conceded, and then we promptly got told by some fellow tourists (from Holland........all tourists are from Holland here....) that it was not the correct thing to do-that our tour guide had told us that if we pay them, they will become lazy and not want to go to school, remaining at the beck and call of tourists for the rest of their lives. I wasnt sure how to internalize this, and still am uncertain of how to digest this peculiar cultural interaction and the opinions associated, but, if only for the sake of our fellow tourists and our desire for avoiding ´animal in the cage´emotions attached to these people who were kind enough to allow us on their island, we avoided one sole pictures after that.
Tequile was absolutely gorgeous, with a main square, agricultural terracing, which I find to be emmensely, yet very simply beautiful in its precision and utility, and many sheep and other amusing domestics. Housing was simple and it seemed to be a very peaceful place to live-staying away from the major tourist arenas, of course. I saw my first black sheep which was hilarious at the time-now i realize they are quite common, and am now a bit confused by our idiomatic expression......
On our way back from Tequile (also....photos available.... :) we had a wonderful chat with two couples from Holland and France about our travels and respective home countries, and got even more color on the top of the boat as we traveled towards Puno.
I must sign off now....but stay tuned for stories of David, the cross-dressing street comedian with a thing for foreign ladies...and men.....and more about the language school i am currently attending in Cusco....and oh yeah, the journey to Machu Picchu!
Enviar con muchas amor,
R
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