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.

Today was a day of laundry, shopping and enjoying the local cuisine. For me, the laundry was all the clothes I borrowed and the first day of wearing my own clothes.

Cusco

Cusco was was the historic capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th-century Spanish conquest. In 1983 Cusco was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It has become a major tourist destination, hosting nearly 2 million visitors a year. The Constitution of Peru designates it as the Historical Capital of Peru.^[2] In 1983 Cusco was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO with the title “City of Cuzco”.  Like many places we visited it is a mixture of the traditional and the modern.

The first tasty experience was in the local market. As soon as you walk in there are rows of ladies waving at you to come to their station to make you fresh juice. It had everything in it. Fruit I had never heard of, vegetables, bee pollen honey and the secret ingredient was dark beer.

After enjoying that treat everyone went their ways to explore the market. Rick and I set off to comb the market for food and snacks for our bus trip tomorrow. The market had everything. A isle of breads that were being sold by the local women, an isle of cheeses, rice, beans, fruits and potatoes. There was a isle of raw meat that we did not go down-it is not like Wegmans were everything is sliced, packaged AND refrigerated. Just a huge isle of slabs of unidentified meat and chickens. We bought fruit, nuts, empanadas and sweet bread.

We all met back from our daily adventures for dinner at a wonderful restaurant complete with music and entertainment.

We interrupt these wonderful pics of delicious food to tell you about Cuy.

This would be a good time to tell you about Cuy. What animal sounds like Kweeeeeeee? Give up? Ok, I will tell you, Guinne pig. Guinne pig is eaten all over the area. You can order in restaurants or on the streets. Guinne pigs are pests for the farmers that eat the bread crops so there is an abundance of them. You have heard of Man vs Food.  Well we had Tom vs Cuy  – the brave one amongst us to try it.

Ok, then — that’s it for this day……

After I good nights sleep in a comfy bed and hearty breakfast we started out early to beat the crowds going up to Machu Picchu.  We caught the bus and back up the winding road. The bus would serpentine up the side of the mountain climbing 3000 feet- with no guard rails and at times having to pass the bus coming down. There were a few of us that had to sit on the inside isle seat and look the opposite way.  Thank you Mr. Tom for being my seat-mate down and up and up and down again – and for always looking out for me the entire trip.

Machu Picchu

First, we were taught how to properly say Picchu. The first “c”is a hard one. So pronounce it from now on as Pickchew or else you are saying Penis. Instead of saying old mountain you would be saying old Penis — I will leave it at that.  Things you never thought you would learn.

There is so much history and questions about this site. Why is it here, what was it used for and how did they construct this without tools? No one knows for sure but there are theories.  Chino and Omar were our guides explaining history to us along the entire site.  Do yourself a favor and watch some videos on the history of one of the 7th Wonders of the World.  It is truly amazing.  Here is a link to the a National Geographic 101.

After going yet again down on the bus ride from another demension  – we spent a few hours in the town, met up for a phenomenal lunch and got on a 2 hour train to take us back to Cusco.

This was no ordinary train ride.

They served tea and dessert, performed a traditional dance and even put on a fashion show of the finest alpaca sweaters (200-300$).  Here is a little bit of the experience.  YES – that is my roomie!

And through the entire experience our fearless heroes were planning the next adventure.

Another 2 hour bus ride back to Cusco and I have clean pants, shirts and not only women’s underwear — but my own!

TRAIN CRASH

No, not ours, but exactly hours later on the very same train there was a collision.