Isla Taquile pictures

  The boat to Isla Taquile, Taquile Island, went out from Puno through the grasslands of Lake Titicaca, to Isla Uros, Uros Islands.  Uros is a group of floating islands, built on an accumulation of grasses piled layer on layer.  The people of Uros have lived like this for several centuries, close to Puno.  In the past years, the people and their way of life have become a tourist curiosity, and even though I've never been there, I could see the changes the locals had made to entertain the tourists.  Our stop there was about an hour, and we had watched a prepared presentation to explain how the islands are built, and how the people live.  It was truly facsinating!  Every step we took was like walking in one of those kids games at the state fair, the moon walk.  Squishy, but dry.  The people  rely on tourists buying their handicrafts for their livelihood.  There is a small conversation in Puno about the Uros people not living on their islands now, but living in the city, a rumor that has negative energy.  They have a reputation of not marrying non-Uros people, but I have to wonder how much longer that will last.
We motored on to Taquile, another 3 hours of beautiful blue sky and water, and views of dry desert land as we pass out of the Puno Bay and into the open lake.  The trip is pretty smooth, until we reach the island, when the wind has picked up, and we are tossed.  The boats unload on the north side of the island, and depart from the southside.  We wonder why....more later on that!

Stuart and I planned to spend the night on Taquile.  Andy, who we met on our boat, is also spending the night.  The three of us have our full backpacks.  Later, I wonder why I didn't think of leaving most of our stuff in Puno, and hauling just a day pack.  Duh. The hike from the boat landing to the tiny village on Taquile took us an hour, and we kept up with the day-trippers, who had no packs.  All this at more than 2 miles above sea level.  We felt like the hike was at a 30% grade, too.  Thank goodness for being in good physical shape.  The views were spectacular!  Oh, my!  The tourist tax we all paid with our boat ticket, paid for the 'highway' that runs from the north to the south of the island, about 5 miles.  The highway, which Andy called the 101, was a paved sidewalk, about 2 people wide.

 







 Yes, the color really is as intense as this photo!










We arrived on Taquile Sunday afternoon.  The tiny square, at the top of the island, was filled with  the islanders, all dressed in their best clothes.  We later learned we had arrived on the annual meeting day. This is the day when the locals meet to vote on the new island council, who in turn decide how to divide the income from the cooperative  The cooperative hosts tourists for overnight stays on the island.  The families in the coop rotate the duties of housing and feeding the tourists. The villagers were very solemn, there was total silence while some of the ceremony of passing the coco leaves was conducted.  Stuart, Andy and I were the only non-villagers there, and while we stood as far away as possible in the plaza, we felt conspicuous.

 There is no electricity or running water on the island, there are no vehicles.  If it's eaten, it's grown on terraces begun by the Incans in the 15th century.  Fish is the other diet staple, of course.  If it's moved from boat to the village, it's hauled up that steep path, on someone's back.  I can not begin to describe the life there.   Better to read the post written by our friends Jessie and Sally, who we met later in the trip.  Their blog post is exquisitely presented.  Here is the link:


  http://www.jsoutofbounds.blogspot.mx/

The rest of this post includes pictures I took.