Puno

Hey y'all.

I just got back from a week at Peru's southern border, where I checked out some stuff in Puno, Lake Titicaca, and Bolivia.  Hope you enjoy this rare occasion that is me posting photos on my blog.

Isla de los Uros: This is an archipelago of man-made islands on the Peruvian side of the lake.  They were constructed hundreds of years ago by refugees from the Inca rule.  The 'ground' consists of a 4 meter layer of earth on top of which lies a bed of reeds, a material from which the Uros people also construct their homes.  Their community has an elementary school and health post and they travel by caballito, the traditional fishing boat.

We spent a night on the beautiful Amantani, one of the spectacular islands on Lake Titicaca.  As the island has no lodging facilities apart from natives' homes, we stayed with a host family.  We were lucky enough to be on the island in time for their Virgen de la Candelaria festivities [more on that later] so we spent some time watching elaborately-costumed dancers parade around the plaza to the beat of several marching bands [often playing all at once, yikes!].

We also went to Bolivia for a quick second.  We had hoped to go to La Paz, the country's biggest urban attraction, but a paro[strike] made it risky, and we didn't want to miss our bus back to Peru the next day.  There was also a strike at the border, so we crossed over on foot, which was pretty cool.  We had to walk a few kilometers to get to the nearest town because the road was "blockaded"...

This is not Peru.

B.A. Border Crossers

We spent the weekend in Puno, where the famous Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria was taking place.  In Peru, each area has its own image of the virgin Mary; Puno's is the Candelaria.  This festival is one of Peru's largest and most famous.  We had a great time in Puno's stadium watching the choreographed traditional dances.  According to the program, there were over seventy groups.  And each had 50-100 participants!  As well as a marching band.  It looked like something out of an Olympic opening ceremony.  Of course, the experience was made complete by the stadium vendors who made constant rounds with camote (sweet potato) chips, ice cream, roast chicken lunch boxes, beer, wafers, juice, and other fun things.

So it was a pretty interesting trip.

Peace.