Friday, November 05, 2004
Palacio de Justicia
Local highschools show off dances
Puno Day Parade
This was fortunate. We returned to Puno to find the local highschools having a series of parades with local dances. I think this was in celebration of "Puno Day" or something like that.
Still not back down yet.
More steps down. We passed a Taquille man on the way up lugging a 50 lb. sack and hiking the whole way bare-footed.
Once we get to the boat, we have a three hour boat ride back to Puno ahead of us.
Ah, the way back down to the boat.
A woman walking up the steps with a child bundled under her arm.
Jenny and Neil on Taquile
Taquile Village
At least 500 steps up from the water's edge, you reach the Taquile village.
Two boys on Taquile
Me and a Taquile girl.
A local girl runs out to greet us on the way up. I was so excited to see her. Mostly because it was a great excuse to stop and catch my breath! It is very high (12, 820 ft.) and dry here.
Taquile Island
After another two hours in the motor boat, we finally arrive at Taquile Island.
A woman herds sheep along the island coast.
We have to climb and climb to get up to the island's main square.
That's Bolivia in the distance. Half of Lake Titicaca belongs to Peru and the other half belongs to Bolivia. The Peruvians claim to have the titi side, while the Bolivians have the caca side.
Black eagles roam the islands
Wild eagles (black eagles) just hang out watching the show--waiting for a fish handout I suppose.
Amazing system of villages and islands
Uros racers
These guys in the reed kayaks zip around from one island to another. Their oars are just long sticks.
Puma head ramming
We're being rammed by another reed boat. That's a puma head made of reeds. The lake is crowded here. There's some water parade or something.
That's Connie, Todd's mom.
Uros woman skipper
One woman propels and steers the boat with a rotating rudder-like thing.
From left to right: Eric, Phil, John, Skipper, Jay, Chris, Lorin.
Reed boat ride!
We took a boat ride on one of those reed boats. See the sailboat in the distance? Some kind of party or boat parade going on.
Uros villagers. Woman grinding grains.
When the reeds are fresh, they are green and have a waterproof outer seal. They re-build their huts from the green reeds right before the rainy season (that's about now) so they'll have water-resistant houses. A whole family may sleep in one of these small huts. The body heat will keep them warm (we're at over 13,000 ft.), but it also creates a very humid environment inside. This high humidity is responsible for the very high mortality rate of 27% of all children between 1-3 yrs.
Uros islands
Villages on floating islands made of packed reeds. Really cool to walk on them. Very cushy, spongy.
They take the root ball of the cattail reeds and large bales of dried reeds to use as floats/anchors of the islands. They then fill in the top with a layer of dry reeds. As the reed layer rots and sinks, they pile on another layer on top.
These people only recently have electric power on these islands. Everything is solar powered.
Uros Sailing
Lake Titicaca
Our first stop is the Uros islands. These are villages on a series of small man-made islands.
