Peru

Yay! Let's drink lot's and lot's of beer before getting on a plane for 10 hours!

From left to right: Eric, Lorin, (Jay hiding), Todd, Phil, Paul, John, Chris.

We make it to the airport in Juliaca near Puno. However, are flight back to Lima is seriously delayed. We're flying on Lan Peru. I still have about 40 Soles to get rid of before leaving Peru. Not much to buy in the airport, though.

I'm sitting with the oldest member of the household here--Milagros's grandmother.

The two bulls and the cross again on the top of the roof for good luck.

John and Milagros sitting in one of the tiny rooms in the house.

Milagros is the youngest member of the household.

We've been invited to look around at a farm house near Sullistani. Fascinating.

A woman and child caring for a Vicuna.

Neil got a haircut for 3 soles (that's less than a dollar). Can you tell?

Behind Neil, to the left, is an island on Lake Umayo which acts as a Vicuna reserve. Vicuna are related to Alpaca, but possess the finest, and most expensive, animal fiber in the world. They are endangered due mostly to poaching and illegal Vicuna meat black markets.

If you look very closely in the center of this picture, you may be able to make out the wild Guinea pig looking at us. Look closely, it's camouflaged well. It's quite a bit smaller than the domesticated Cuy we've seen locally.

The cylinder is wider at the top than at the base. However, the structure is still very stable--the Inca have hollowed out the stones at the top to move the stones' center of gravity--the stones lean inwards.

The villagers bring cattle down to the lake to graze. It is just before the rainy season, so the water level is low. The cows wade out into the lake an graze on all the algae in the water. Sea-cows.

These round tombs are called Chullpas. These are older Colla tribe (pre-Inca) tombs.

Sillustani is the town name on Lake Umayo. It's known for it's pre-Inca and Inca stone tombs. Mummies (mummified in the fetal position) were placed in round, stone tombs. Each has a tiny door facing east. The one in this picture is an Inca tomb. Only nobility were buried in such a tomb.

Home of the pre-Inca Colla tribes. Later conquered by Inca. We're real high up, now. It's over 13,000 ft. in elevation. The Colla figured out how to best farm in this environment. They create these raised beds (or camel backs) with irrigation channels in between. This allows for good irrigation, without flooding and also the moisture maintains an stable temperature for the crops--nothing freezes.

The Inca caught on to this technology when they conquered the area. Unfortunately, some of this farming knowledge was lost in Peru when the Inca were conquered.