Goodbye Peru

---

The boat travels at a deliberate pace through the icy blue waters of lake Titicaca, as the intense sun saps the energy of the passengers sprawled on the roof. Only two hours to go until we reach the floating islands of the Uros people. We notice a fast moving boat on the horizon. An odd site on this tranquil lake, where we have seen all of about 5 boats in 3 days, none of which barely create a wake. We ignore it in solar delirium.
Ten minutes later, police sirens are blaring and a loud speaker erupts with warnings. Our boat comes to a halt, but our captain springs to action. A seat is ripped open and life vests thrown to each of the passengers. Our tour guide stays quietly in the corner. Three or four of the police board and enter the cabin. The officer in charge asks for the guide - everyone looks and points to our friend in the corner. The officer proceeds to reprimand him for neglecting to inform the passengers of the danger of falling in the freezing water and being able to survive only 15 minutes. He demands he be more careful in the future. We all relax a bit and the episode is over. Our first encounter with the Peruvian Coast Guard is a bit of a surprise. They appear to have been looking out for our well being.

Lake Titicaca is a beautiful place. We spent one night on the island of Amantani, where the inhabitants still practice a very traditional lifestyle of subsistence farming. We were lucky to arrive on the festival day of San Sebastian and saw the entire Island (9 communities) prepare a feast and spend hours performing traditional dance and music.

Next we moved on to the city of Arequipa and then to one of the deepest canyons of the world, Cañon del Colca. We spent 3 days in the canyon enjoying hotsprings, observing rural life up close (ever seen a slaughtered animal being cut to pieces on the side of the road), and seeing condors up close.

We then made a beeline back to Arequipa and caught an overnight bus to Lima to catch our flight to Buenos Aires. When we arrived at the airport, we discovered that our flight was going to be delayed by about 9 hours. We were initially a little disappointed but soon realized that we were going to be put up at the Sheraton ($300 a night for a double room!) for the night in downtown Lima. A nice surprise considering the last hotel we stayed in cost $3. We were only sad that we didn´t have more time to enjoy all of the amenities!!

Peru has been an amazing experience both in terms of cultural and natural beauty. We looked at a map the other day and realized we´ve seen only a tiny fraction of this country. Guess we´ll just have to come back...

Now on to Buenos Aires!

---

Photos

Adrift on Titicaca
Boat ride from Amantani and Taquile to the floating islands of Uros. The intense sun and slow ride makes for a good napping opportunity.

Taxi Cholo
Eco-friendly transportation

lake titicaca
Boat ride to Isla Amantani with fellow French, Brazilian, and Peruvian passengers

Ladies of Amantani
Traditional clothing at the Festival of San Sebastian. The wider waist belt and the brighter skirt colors are worn by single girls. The style and color of this skirt is inspired by the Peruvian national flower called the Kantuta flower. The white shirts are embroidered with plants and animals that are native to this island. Women and girls carry anything from soda to babies in the shawls that are wrapped around their shoulders.

men of amantani
Parading around the Temple of Pacha Tata for the festival. Darker clothes are worn by the elders. Men wear brightly colored purses to carry their coca leaves. When men greet each other, rather than shaking hands, they take some of the coca leaves from their own pouch and put it into the pouch of the person they are greeting.

Offerings to PachaTata
Each island community gathered on a separate part of the mountain to make offerings. In the landscape beyond, you can see how much of the land is used for agriculture. Every family has their own crops (divided by loosely laid stone walls). Their diet is almost strictly vegetarian (except for trout and occasional meat) because they haven´t left any room for animals to graze.

Offerings to PachaTata 2
Elder women sit on on side of the offering and elder men on the other. The offering consists of cooked potatoes, beans, corn, quinoa.

Offerings to PachaTata 3
More traditional clothing. Head scarves are also worn by women. Traditionally (but not really practiced anymore), the elder women are allowed to drape theirs loosely showing their face, neck and hair while the younger girls are supposed to wrap theirs more tightly to cover themselves.

Don stealing San Sebastian´s lunch
We decided to dive in to the offerings. The real offerings were actually dropped into a hole during the ceremony. This was lunch.

dancing
The nine communities have a dance-off after lunch. In general there seemed to be a group of men from each community that played the music on flutes, and another group of men and women who performed the dance. The main element of the dance consisted of holding hands in a circle in a sort of conga line, but the idea is to whip each other around. It´s rather nauseating as we found out later in the evening.

traditional clothing
Rebecca caught this great shot (showing the ornately embroidered headscarf). The water in the lake is very pristine and is a brilliant blue when the sun is shining. The clothing is equally vivid.

arch
A number of arches dot the paths to both pachatata and pachamama on isla amantani

Sunset on Amantani
After a day of dancing (or watching dancing in our case), we caught a sunset from pachatata on Amantani.

Superman
These fishing boats were curiously named after super heroes.

rescue
After the ¨incident¨. Rebecca with Fernanda and Miguel dutifully wearing their life vests.

Totora reeds
I wasn´t a big fan of the totora reed (which is used for just about everything on the island from the floor of the island itself, houses, boats, furniture, food), but rebecca seemed to really enjoy it. We both felt a bit quesy afterwards...no lasting damage.

house of totora reeds
There are many small islands made of totora reeds, tall grasses that grow in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. The Uros have lived like this for generations. Now, many of the inhabitants wait for the tourist boats to sell textiles, trinkets, postcards, and anything else that will get you to part with your money.

eco transport
The ultimate eco transport, the tricycle taxi. A very pleasant mode of tranportation.

Uva Uva Uva
We stopped in Juliaca (contraband capital of Peru - which we experienced first hand when a Quechua woman behind us asked us to hold onto one of her items as we passed through an area where the bus was inspected) on our way to Arequipa. Here vendors use tricycles to transport their goods. This intersection was full of commotion with buses, tricycle taxis, vendors, pedestrians, etc. It was also very noisy with lots of shouting over megaphones, like at an auction or a horse race. We eventually realized that the shouting was coming from the fruit vendors, who attached giant megaphones to their carts. For some reason (which we couldn´t figure out), it was only the grape vendors that seemed to do this.
"uva, uva, uva....uva blanca, uva rica, uva dulce.....dos soles a la uva...oiga senores y senoras!"

Comments

[Kat, Trav, and Zoë]

Having fun reading the blog
Keep it up! Love the stories and pics. :)

[Linda Weiner]

thanks!
Don, this is a great travel blog! I feel like I'm right there. It reminds me of my many trips in faraway places - and makes me envious to be on the road again. Keep on truckin....

[Aunt Anne & Danielle]

Hey guys, Awesome pictues! The shots are fantastic. National Geographic worthy indeed, lol. You must be having tons of fun living out the magazine! We can't wait to see more. **Hugs and Kisses** Love, Anne and Danielle