Puno/Arequipa (Día 3)

Okay, I'm finally getting back to writing my blogs.  I actually wrote some of these Puno/Arequipa blogs on the plane so all I had to do was type this up and add pictures. :)

Anyway, finally it's here...Day 3!!  Day 3 didn't start very well because I woke up at around 5:30 a.m.m and had probably one of teh worst headaches of my life.  The altitude finally caught up to me.  I must not have drank enough water the day before.  Plus, the lack of oxygen when sleeping is kind of rough.  Anyway, I tried to sleep until breakfast, but it was hard to do with the headache, but fortunately, Sheila had Advil so I was better by the time breakfast was over.  Breakfast consisted of this pancake/crepe looking thing, bread, and tea.  It was good and soon after we said goodbye to our host family and Benigno (our host grandfather) walked us to the port, where we then said goodbye to him.  We boarded the boat and we went on our way to Isla Taquile.  It was about an hour boat ride and I slept the entire way.

Isla Taquile and Lake Titicaca

Once we arrived to the island, we hiked to the Plaza (yep, just Plaza, there's no police force there either).  The hike wasn't too difficult, we that's what I say now because I am not there hiking it, but I'm not going to complain because the Taquile people (and others from that region) can carry almost 40 kilograms (around 88lbs) on their backs while hiking, which is just crazy.  I witnessed it and it just didn't look fun.  Anyway, at the Plaza we walked around and also looked at the Tejido, which was pretty much a market filled with things sewn by the men and women of Taquile.  I didn't buy anything there because stuff was rather expensive there, however, I did buy two bracelets from a little girl, Mary Luisa, on the street.  After the time in the Plaza, we hiked to some nearby Pre-Incan ruins.  There were still some stone houses, but other than that, there wasn't too much to see.

Pre-Incan ruins

However, two interesting things we could see were the snowy caps of the highest mountain peak in Bolivia and the town of Picuyo (I think that was the name of it), but since I am not 100% sure of the name, let's just call it cocaine land, meaning it's the town that has the highest cocaine production in Peru.  Our guide told us that it's also the town that has the most luxerious cars in it.  Our guide also told us that no police are allowed in the town.  Ha, I wonder why?  Pretty much you're probably in danger just for going near the town.

After that, we hiked to a restaurant for lunch.  Every restaurant on the island has the exact same menu choices: trout (from the lake) and an omelette.  They also, like the houses on Amantani, have a rotation so that each restaurant gets the same attention from tourists.  Before eating though, we learned some things about the Taquile people.  Number 1:  Their wedding ceremony is 7 days long and it's fun for everyone except for the couple.  The couple have many rules that they must follow.  For example, they have to remain serious, they cannot eat using their hands, they can't talk, and a couple months before the ceremony, the women must cut off her hair and the man weaves it into a belt.  More on the weaving habits of men... Like on Amantani, the man must be a good sewer or a woman will not want to be his wife.  A woman will put water in the man's hat to test his sewing abilities and if it holds water for a long time, than that man will most likely make a good husband.  Also, there's no divorce on this island either.  Also, we learned about the traditional dress of people on Taquile.  For example, men who are married have all red hats, men who are single have red and white hats, and the presidents/officials of the island sport brightly colored chullos.

Men's hats

Also, there is a certain positioning to the hats: to the back means that the boy is under the age of 12 or something like that, to the right means they are happy with their marriage, and to the left means that they are unhappy with their marriage.  It makes me wonder how many people in the U.S. would be willing to openly express if they were happy or unhappy by wearing a hat.  Also, you can differenciate between single and married women by the pon poms that they have on their shawls.  Big pon poms equals single, small means married.  We also learned the proper greetings between men on the island.  I hope you are finding all of this interesting.  I, personally, think it's all pretty cool, but if your not interestied then just skip ahead.  Anyway, men exchange coca leaves to greet each other.  We also watched two traditional dances-a planting potato dance (that's what I call it :)) and the marriage dance and lastly, we witnessed a woman weaving and a man using a natural shampoo to clean wool.  And man did that shampoo work.  I wanted some considering we all had not showered in four days-whoops!!  Anyway, we finally ate and we had soup and I chose to eat the trout from Lake Titicaca.  It was delicious and how many of you guys can say that you ate trout from the highest navegable lake in the world. :)  Also, I should tell you that there are only five types of fish in the lake: trout (which was brought from Canada in 1960), catfish, something called ispi, and two other smaller fish.  After lunch, we hiked to the port (there are 5 ports and 6 communities on Taquile) and got on the boat for a three hour trip back to Puno and again, I slept for the majority of the time.

Lunch-yum!!

When we got back to Puno (the mainland), we went to the bathroom, ate ice cream, and picked up some food for our bus ride to Arequipa.  We took a taxi to the bus terminal and we took the 5 o'clock bus to Arequipa.  Tonisha and I talked for some fo the bus ride, but then we fell asleep, but it wasn't too long before we were waking up because it was SO cold on the bus, but finally we made it to Arequipa around 11:30 p.m.  We were going to just take a taxi to the Plaza de Armas, and then find a hostel, but then our taxi driver ended up recommending a place and man am I glad he did because the hostel was great.  But I'll rant and rave about the hostel on Day 4.  Anyway, we got to the hostel and I went straight to bed!