Today was a bus ride to the airport for our trip back to Lima.  Of course had time for one more last stop at an ancient site –Sillustani.  This was actually pre-incas and a burial site.  It was amazing to see the artistry and workmanship of the stone blocks.  The stone blocks were not erected into straight walls but rounded towers. These were.

There was always a small opening at the base, facing east. It is speculated that since the Inca, and presumably earlier people were “sun worshippers” these doors related to the religious belief system that it may guide the departed soul to some kind of afterlife.

Landed in Lima  — with luggage.  We stayed in the Miraflores district of Lima, known for its upscale shopping and restaurants and very near the pacific ocean.  We were treated to a beautiful and wonderful dinner at La Rosa Nautical Restaurant.

I stayed pretty warm during the night and was awakened at around 530am by the sunrise and sound of a donkey. No need for alarms here. I sat for awhile looking out the window and watched the community come alive. We had breakfast of quinoa pancakes and then our host mama took us to our boats by 8 am.

We took a short boat ride over to the island of Taquile. Our day would be spent walking around the island seeing and experiencing local culture. One of the local authorities was there to check us into the island. We would learn there are 20 of these men that volunteer to be the officials of the island. Each day they walk around taking to the members of the community to see if everything is ok. There are no police or firearms but they do carry whips.

The St James (San Santiago) Festival & Taquile Textile Art Fair

There are 2,200 Taquileans living on the island.  They speak Quechua and we were to learn that they live in a cooperative society where all work is done to benefit the community  The local economy bases itself on fishing, potato farming, textiles, and tourism.  The work such as knitting, a male task, and weaving, a female task, is undertaken as part of the daily chores.

We just happened to be visiting during the time of year that they had a festival dedicated to their patron saint, the Apostle James.  It hit me that St. James was appearing again in my life – the Camino de Santiago being the first.  They had demonstrations showing their how they made  their hand-woven textiles, considered the best in Peru.  Taquile´s textile art were proclaimed by UNESCO “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”.

When we reached the main plaza many of the community members and the officials were watching and enjoying singing and dancing.

The doorways and arches were decorated with their national flower – Kantuta.

We walked along a beautiful path – the islands only way of getting around.  Our destination was the other end of the island where our boat would pick us up.

But first, we stopped at a wonderful and beautiful home for lunch.

After lunch we were treated to a presentation about the local traditions and customs they’ve preserved for centuries:

No handshake, just coca leaves

When two people meet on Taquile, both parties pull out a handful of coca leaves from the waist bag on the right side and exchange. Chew the coca leaves first, and then you can start talking.

Prove your worth by drinking out of your knitted hat

When a man wants to marry a woman, he needs to prove his worth by drinking water out of his knitted hat. If the hat is knitted so tightly that the water doesn’t drip, he has successfully proved his abilities.

We thought we were in for a “perfect storm” kind-of trip back to Puno – but our captain simply went around it.

Waking up in Puno – this is the view from our window.  If you look high to the right on the hill you will see a statue.  This is a statue of a condor.  The condor is part of the Incan trinity: Condor, Puma, Snake.  In these three animals, sky, earth, and the underworld are represented. Condor, we would learn, is the only bird strong enough to fly up to the heavens and deliver messages to God.  Puma has patience and strength. The snake travels to the underworld, and when it sheds its skin, is reborn, transformed. All part of the circle of life.  We would experience this belief throughout our trip in-scripted  in ancient sites, textiles, and modern symbols.

Today we met our guide José.  He will be the guide for our Lake Titicaca adventure and we headed to the docks. We were told to buy some gifts of rice, oil and fruit for our family hosts where we will be staying tonight on the Island of Amantani.

It was – again – a beautiful day and we had our own boat, traveling through the reeds towards the Uros Islands.

These islands are man/women made from the surrounding reeds and can each hold around 25 people or a few families. There are about 85 floating islands with approximately 2000 inhabitants.

It was not until the 90s that the island people allowed tourists to stop at their island. They have since embraced tourism but in their own way. The entire community shares the responsibility dividing the days that tourists can stop among them.

We were shown how the islands are made and how the people lived on these islands.

A very cold ride on a Kon-Tiki boat compliments of Rick and we were back on the boat for a 2/12 hour ride around the peninsula of Capachica and to the isle of Amantani.

On Amantani, we were met by our host families – our mama’s and papa’s for our overnight stay.  Names were called and I had the honor of joining Matt and Char to stay with a family.

Our family of fourThe family speaks Quechua and understands a little Spanish and no English  – which proved to be a challenge to communicate but there is always the universal language of charades and children.

We were served lunch in their kitchen of potato soup, okra, tomatoes and fried cheese. After lunch the three of us met up with the rest of our group to learn about the daily life of these farmers. Life has not changed very much over the 100’s and 100’s of years that these people have lived here. They still were traditional garb and are self sustaining. There are six communities on the island and a school. To our way of life it is very primitive but who is to say?

There was another amazing experience waiting for us after dinner. We were dressed up in traditional dress and met in the community center for a good ole neighborhood dance.

At over 13,000 feet just walking up to the center was a challenge much less dancing. We all had a great time dancing together and with our host Mamas.

It was very cold at night probably in the 30s and no heating in the homes. But they piled on at least five alpaca blankets on top of our beds that kept us warm.

We left Cusco around 730am, loaded up a bus and headed out for a 7 hour journey to Puno – with Rick as our guide.

We made a stop at the archeological site of Pikillaqta. We have been visiting Incan sites and this was pre-incan.  The amazing part of this site is the fact that it has been used since 5000BC

The Sistine Chapel of the Andes

We stopped at St. Peter the Apostle Church, Andahuaylillas. We were not allowed to take pictures inside but the link above takes you to a lovely video. This church acts as a community hub and feeds nearly 400 children a day, an after-school program, library  all supported in part from the fees to see the church.

We continued driving through the country side seeing small farms being worked by women in tradition garb, cows and Llamas. We stopped at a rest stop at the top of a pass at 14,000 feet – the highest elevation of our trip.  There were ladies selling goods and even a bathroom. You can see the top of the bathroom which had actual toilets and a man with a bucket of water that would come in after you to flush.

We made it to Puno and we stayed at the Qelqatani Hotel.  It was beautiful and just a few blocks off the plaza.