Walking on Water

A small procession that went by the square around 6am

Last minute Titicaca pit-stop! Off an all night bus from Cusco, we arrive in Puno around 5 am, splash some water on our faces, stash our bags at the bus station, and head to the Plaza De Las Armas. Today is the ¨Festival de La Virgen de La Candelaria¨, the biggest celebration all year in Puno. It is a big cultural event, with music, dancing and lots of parties. It combines different cultures from modern Peruvians, to Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous cultures of the Andean Highlands. Unfortunately, the city itslef was a bit sketchy, and we were on a serious time schedule. Because we just threw this stop in last minute, we only had about 7 hours to see Lake Titicaca and the floating Islands before our next bus continuing on to Arequipa! We fit A LOT in that day... We ate breakfast in the square and watched people bussle around the cathedral with flower petals, roses, and decorations for the celebration. We sat with all the cute little old Peruvian men on the park benches and watched them move the church pews, the altar, and wedding chairs out in front of the church (I didn´t know you could do that!) and they decorated a procession isle with huge banners and rich pieces of material. A few little processions went by and a lot of fireworks that were more like smoky gunshots. I think we were the only tourists around at that hour of the morning...

Around 8:30 am we went down to the docks where we jumped on a boat for a scenic tour of the lake.  We watched Puno dissappear in the distance

We arrived on the Island of Uros where the local people welcome us with brightly colored clothing and gold smiles. There are 60 different islands out here, all man-made by chunks of earth and floating reeds. It is so crazy that they live out here! I still can´t believe it, you can feel a slight sway (because you´re technically FLOATING) and your feet sink into the reeds that make up the ground. It just looks like straw everywhere! I eye their coooking pots outside their houses and just wonder how they don´t light their whole island on fire? Looks extremely flammable. The people of the island do a few little demonstrations on how they built the island, and a little about their history. Their people originally moved onto the lake in boats to avoid fighting by other tribes on land, the man-made island idea came along a little later.

Then we met Amelia. She was such a kind lady that invited us into her home and showed us how her and her family lived on the island. Her daughter is pictured above in front of her house, Amelia is shown below.

Amelia showed us a small embroidered tapestry she had worked on for an entire month that depicted the Pachamama (mother earth), the puma which represents the shape of the lake, the Andean creator, a ceremonial god, representations of water, fire, and lots of fish (food)! We fell in love! Of course we had to buy it, so I guess we technically payed her a month´s income, which is NUTS! They live off of nothing!

Here is Amelia sitting in front of her house with all of her hand-crafted goods. The tapestry we bought is right in front of her! We were so happy to be able to support her a little!

Chris Chewing on some reeds, this is like a fruit to them!

Titicaca was amazing, we would have loved to see the Bolivia side as well but the Lake is 174 km long! The Peruvians argue that 60% of the Lake belongs to Peru, and 40% belongs to Bolivia; this means the ¨Titi¨ for Peru, and the ¨Caca¨ for Bolivia. Of course they say the opposite in Bolivia. The weather was perfect, crisp air from the high altitude and beautiful sunshine - the thunder clouds stayed in the distance.

We were back on another 7 hour bus by 1pm...a day well done. This bus however was a local bus, and although it was very cheap, there were a few near riots we didn´t exactly want to be a part of. People were screaming and pounding on the driver´s door demanding faster driving, unplanned stops, or to put the television on. Always something. But an experience it was! Now we are safe in Arequipa and plan on going out to the village of Chivay tomorrow! BOOM BOOM BOOM, needless to say, we are sleeping well, when we have the chance.