Puno, Amantani, and Taquile

¡Hola y bienvenidos a la tercera entrada en mi blog!

Hello and welcome to my third blog post from Peru!

        Since my last post, my classmates and I have traveled from Arequipa to Puno (a 6 hour bus ride), from Puno out to three different Islands on Lake Titicaca, and from Puno to Cusco  (a 6.5 hour bus ride).  I've spoken a lot of Spanish, eaten some interesting foods, met some friendly people, and climbed three different small mountains (yes, at 12,000ft+ altitude)!  

        As I am quite exhausted and needing to recharge for tomorrow (when we head to Machu Picchu), this post will mainly consist of my favorite photos from the past 48 hours.  I offer a brief synopsis of our travels in the in-between paragraphs, but the photos themselves will tell the bulk of my narrative all by themselves.  

        Our day on Saturday began with a six hour bus ride to Puno.  During the ride, we stopped multiple times to see vicuñas, llamas, and alpacas on the side of the road.  We also got up to about 14,500 ft, which left most of us feeling lightheaded.  Luckily our guides brought a few cans of oxygen, which helped some of my classmates who were experiencing more severe altitude sickness.  For my part, I just kept drinking water - four bottles during the 6 hour ride.

Standing on the side of the road above tree line (14,000ft+)

Vicuñas on the side of the road on the way to Puno

    About 45 minutes outside of Puno, we stopped at Sillustani - an Incan and pre-Incan burial and ritual site - where we ate lunch and learned about the burial towers.  Each tower entombed one Incan noble, and the noble's family and servants were buried around the tower.

Incan burial tower at Sillustani

Picture of me in front of Umayo Lake at Sillustani

         As our bus finally neared Puno, one of our tour guides informed us that Puno is "the city of fiestas."  Initially, I didn't read too much into this statement, but as soon as we arrived in downtown Puno, I knew what the guide was talking about.  Masses of people - locals and tourists alike - packed the streets.  Marching bands and dancers paraded all around town.  Some bands simply stood and played in the main square...and the festivities continued all night long.  It was a fun atmosphere.  The other remarkable thing about Puno was its hilly streets. I've never been to San Francisco, but I imagine the streets there are much the same as those in Puno.

"Fiesta" streets of Puno upon our arrival

        After one night in Puno (in which I slept like a rock) our group departed on a boat from Puno harbor to Amantani, an island located about two hours from Puno by speed boat.  We didn't go all the way to Amantani first, though, but stopped at a Uros floating island.  

        The Uros are a people who live out their lives on floating islands made of reeds that grow in the lake.  As Marcos (the president of the island we visited) demonstrated, the people not only form a reed lattice on which to live, but they also use the reeds as a food source (they have a soft, chewy interior) and a hut-building material.  Today, the Uros rely heavily on tourism as a source of income.  For my part, I bought a few handicrafts from the Uros to support the local economy.   

Marcos demonstrating the use of reeds to construct the floating islands

        After visiting the Uros, we continued to Amantani.  Amantani is inhabited by approximately 4,000 people today, divided into 10 communities.  The community we stayed with is one of the larger settlements on the island with approximately 1,500 people living there.  Our host was a very kind woman named Valentina who cooked for us and provided lodging.  

        The food that Valentina and her family provided was INCREDIBLE.  Our lunch on Sunday was prepared in the "Pachamanca" style, in which the food is wrapped in paper, and cooked in the ground underneath hot coals.  Fresh chicken and potatoes was the dish - prepared in front of us, cooked in the ground, and served in the family house. 

        After lunch on Sunday, our group climbed to the top of Amantani to the temple of Pachacuti  (the sky god).  The climb was very difficult given the altitude, and we had to stop many times to catch our breath.  A thunderstorm was rolling in, but luckily we made the two-hour trek up and down the mountain just before the rain started to fall. 

        We would venture out into the rain later on, however, to go to a community house and learn traditional dance techniques.  We were given panchos and alpaca-wool hats to wear for the occasion!

One of Valentina's family members using the "Pachamanca" method to cook our lunch 

Potatoes (prepared in the pachamanca style) and Peruvian corn - very tasty!

Me and the two Anthonys (Anthony my classmate just behind me, and Anthony the photographer and media editor behind him) at a cultural dance party on Amantani

View from inside the temple of Pachacuti.  It took about one hour to hike to the top.

         This morning we left Amantani early for Taquile, a neighboring island which according to our guide was named the fourth most beautiful island in the world in a competition a few years ago.  Tequile was long and skinny whereas Amantani was round - which was interesting because you could see Lake Titicaca on both sides of the island.  

View of Lake Titicaca from the top of Taquile

View of Lake Titicaca from Taquile where we ate lunch

        We ate lunch on Tequile - which consisted of fresh trout, soup, rice and veggies - and we also learned about the local (and decidedly chauvinistic) culture, in which the females always walk behind the males.  Everyone seemed very happy though....and I know I was!  Other than the rain storm last night, and despite it being rainy season here, the weather has been beautiful.  

Beautiful view of an Andean mountain (and some cows) on our ride to Cusco this afternoon

        We left Tequile shortly after noon and took a boat back to Puno (about 1.5 hours).  From there we hopped on a bus and rode on to Cusco (about 7 hours)....and here we are in the Incan capital.

        These last three days have pushed me past what I thought was the physical and mental brink of exhaustion, but the Peruvian people have inspired me to keep pushing forward in the times when I haven't been feeling very well.  The people here - especially those on Amantani and Taquile - are very friendly, they work very hard, and they speak multiple languages.  They want the world to know that their way of life exists and that they are proud of it.  

        These people definitely deserve a voice.  It seems to me like its very easy for westerners to dismiss the Uros peoples, those living on Amantani, and those living on Taquile as only a tourist attraction.  These people do benefit a lot from tourism, but not as much as they potentially could - this is because outside tourist companies eat into a lot of the profit for foreign visits.  

        The course I am taking here in Peru is an H2P colloquium - an honors humanities course.  Through that humanities perspective, I am realizing how the tourist economy here in Peru shapes the social opportunities of people living in different regions.  Tourism sustains the economies of the Uros, the Amantani, and the Taquile peoples, but outside tour companies (who hire guides with 4-year college degrees in tourism) limit upward social mobility for these people at the same time.

        As I continue with this blog, I will be analyzing other aspects of the socio-economic interplay in Peru.  I occupy the unique position of student-tourist-blogger, so I believe my analysis will be a little more well-informed than that of the casual observer.

         I thank you very much for following along with me to this point.  Tomorrow it's on to Ollantaytambo and then to Machu Picchu.  I hope to post again in 2-3 days.

Until then... muchas gracias!


—Brock
9 Jan