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Monday, December 29, 2014

Pre-Christmas Road Trip, Part Three: Capachica Peninsula


Perhaps I shouldn't lead off with the most spectacular photo of the entire blog post, but the view from our terrace here was breathtaking, and having these two sirens posing in the foreground made for a priceless shot!


The next leg of our trip sent us inland a bit, then around the lake clockwise to the far more remote Capachica peninsula. If Puno and Islas Uros are defined by their tourist hordes, this place typifies the opposite. We drove for a few hours, deep into the countryside, only to wind up in the most rural and rustic of settings, albeit still along a stunningly beautiful stretch of lake shore. We had read that, although we could have the tiny village of Llachon to ourselves, pushing beyond it toward an even smaller Santa Maria would put us at Casa Felix, which boasts arguably the best view on Lake Titicaca. While I'm confident that the above photo substantiates this claim, I can't help but throw in a few more landscape shots for punctuation:

Farm houses and terraced fields, Llachon


Isla Taquile in the distance (the subject of our next blog post)


To me, the best part of staying at Casa Felix was that, although Felix' wonderful family provided very comfortable accommodations in their hospedaje (home-stay), they remained very much in the gritty, rural Peruvian context and, deliberate or not, they hadn't sanitized our experience any. To illustrate this point, here's a shot of the family goat that enjoys the shade and wind shelter just outside our bedroom window:



And here's where Felix keeps his chanchos, just spitting distance from our other bedroom window. 

(I realize I could have simply used the word "pigs" or "swine", but chancho has become one of Lola's and my favorite Spanish words, so we try to use it every time the opportunity presents itself.)


Then, just beyond the chanchos (there's that glorious word again), lay the most beautiful sandy beach on Lake Titcaca, or so they say...

Check out the Pearce girls down there in full frolic.






































A closer shot of said frolicking.


...and when frolicking turns to live burial.



During out stay, Mama and Norah went on a hiking "date" along the lake shore.


...And Mel captured an outstanding shot of Norah perched on the rocks. I want this choice image in my head the moment I shuffle off this mortal coil:

I worship this darling little turd.


Then Mama and Harper's subsequent date took them inland, first to observe the local 4-H animal husbandry program...



...then on an inspection of the town's storm water (and sewer?) infrastructure. Are you starting to see why we don't eat the chancho? Around these parts, at least, pigs are filthy animals, and we don't eat filthy animals.

And I know, I know. Bacon tastes good! And pork chops taste good! 
But, hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but we won't eat the filthy things. We ain't eatin' nothing that ain't got sense enough to disregard its own feces. And ours, for that matter. 



But I digress. So, I was fortunate to be able to get in a little morning trail running while we were on the peninsula. The scenery from the high point of the peninsula was nothing less than breathtaking, and I really wish these shots did justice to being on top of it all. Thanks for enduring these panoramas.
Can someone kindly queue the Spanish version of The Sound of Music???

View of the Chucuito Peninsula to the south, which helps to create the bay at Puno (right)

Another shot of the Chucuito peninsula, but also of our beach on the left.


Some of the ba-jillions of ruins in this country, with Ccotos bay to the north.
















Ruins of, I believe, an Inca funerary tower, with Isla Amantani beyond to the east.




















The trail run was fun and all, but then things got genuinely and unexpectedly cultural. As it happens, Felix is some sort of town official, and on this very Saturday he was hosting the wedding of his goddaughter, the only wedding that had taken place in Llachon in quite some time. Anyhow, Felix had been gushing about this event to us for days, and had repeatedly invited and encouraged us to attend and participate. Suddenly we didn't feel at all like tourists! Certainly feeling out of our element and unsure what to expect next, yes, but at least not feeling like Puno tourists, and that was a really cool feeling!

This wedding was a big deal, folks. The whole town came out...on foot!



Check out the hats on these ladies, apparel unique to this peninsula only.

The family had even hired a brass band to play music (quite loudly) the entire day.



















First a toast. Note the confetti in everyone's hair.



The girls were dumbfounded at the scene. Heck, we all were!



Dudes over here, chicks over there. 
This kind of reminds me of my teenage church dances, 
only with a whole lot less angst and, thankfully, totally flaccid.


True, there was a whole lot less angst on this occasion, but never did I say that things didn't get awkward. As you will witness below, apparently the thing to do is go through the reception line and give money to the bride and groom. However, as much as we had been coached by Felix on this custom, he had failed mention that we were supposed to pin the money onto one or both of the newlyweds and that, despite the ear-splitting din of the brass band, the wedding party would be stone faced and stoic for this entire process. Compounding this awkwardness was that it felt like all eyes were on the Gringos to see what we would do and, most maladroit of all, Melissa is filming every agonizing and oafish move that I made, right up to the point before the dead-pan groom floundered to kiss my hand!

Observe and enjoy....


All of my bungling aside, the wedding was really genuine and spontaneous to us as outsiders, and we count it as one of the coolest experiences we've had so far in Peru. Here are a few more shots of the wedding that I really like:







Our next stop on this trip is called Chiffron, a tiny little hillside hamlet on the northeast side of the peninsula. Our book indicates that, if we find Llachon to be too cosmopolitan for our liking, we can really rough it by staying in Chiffron. Boy, were they right! 


To all those who will ever read this post, please bring me back to reality if you ever hear me complain about our living conditions. How can I possibly grouse about the size of our HD screen now that my family has slept in bedrooms with dirt floors, sat on toilets with neither tank nor seat, and possessed in our mouths more teeth than an entire zip code? Folks, we really don't grasp how good we have it back in the good ol' U. S. of A.




As basic as our accommodations were, it was actually really refreshing to have it so. It was like camping at a KOA full of goats, except that someone had stolen the shower. 




Our hosts, Emiliano and his Quechua wife who's name is unpronounceable to Gringos without causing injury, were about the sweetest couple we have ever met. They made every extra effort to ensure that we were comfortable, well fed, and, most of all, that he had told us everything that there is to know about this tiny little community. It was like Bubba waxing verbose to Forrest about the shrimpin' business. After the first two hours of the lecture, Melissa and the girls abandoned me and I started to measure time on a geological scale, bless his heart. Awesome folks, though, and a really cool experience in a beautiful setting.

 













Friday, December 26, 2014

Pre-Christmas Road Trip, Part Two: On Floating Sticks




The most frequented place in the Puno region by far is the cluster of Uros Islands on Lake Titicaca. About a thousand years ago, as a defensive measure, the Uro tribe moved onto floating islands they had constructed of the tortora reeds that grow in the lake. These folks have since been culturally invaded by the Aymara tribe through intermarriage, then overwhelmed by the Inca about five hundred years ago. Wikipedia provides a more thorough explanation here.

The tribe manages to keep its identity intact, and now benefits enormously from their fascinating living conditions because, as you can imagine, the tourists go gaga over folks living on what is now fifty-or-so self-made floating reed islands on this superlatively high and giant lake.

Usos islands cluster. Note: the red and yellow roof is that of the floating LDS meetinghouse.
Anyway, at this Islas Uros segment of our trip, we were faced with the decision of whether to join the swarms of slobbering tourists on a package tour to stomp around the on-display natives for an hour as they tout their handicrafts and charge for photo opportunities. Then we learned of a unique opportunity to actually stay a night with an Uro family on Khantati, a more remote island away from the tourist hordes, and jumped at the chance. Sure, it was still a little artificial and programmed, but Christina and Victor (our amazing hosts) had deliberately made it so to ensure that our experience was interesting and comfortable, rather than just a lame isolated thumb-twiddling session.

Abram, our hosts' son-in-law to be, picked us up in a little wooden boat to take us to their island.




It sure was really great to get away from the city crowds and into a more natural setting.





Before long we arrived at the fee station. Turns out that you've got to pay to play here!



This is Khantati, our destination:



Khantati is located at the end of this long archipelago.
Picture these two images stitched together:




Like most of their neighbors, our hosts had a few traditional thatched boats, mostly for tourist purposes. Although they are super cool, they are apparently also a pretty major maintenance hassle.




An aerial view of the Khantati compound:




And there are lots of things to do on a floating island! You can chase around the pet flamingo....























....or take in a birds-eye lake view from the mirador....




....or just sit on the reed beds and relax with your people.






But not for long, because the hosts will keep you busy! Before we knew it, we were being whisked away on a fishing trip in the puma boat! (By the way, "Titiqaqa" means "stone of the puma" in the native Quechua language, after a big rock outcropping on the Bolivian side of the lake apparently looks like a puma. The Incas held the puma, condor, and snake in pretty high regard, thus the puma head as the bow spirit on the thatched boat).






There was still plenty of stuff to do on our way to check the fishing nets. Victor had made toy boats for the girls, who had a great time dragging them along behind the big boat. It was reminiscent of many river hours spent towing toy boats behind our NRS Precious.



Meanwhile,with the girls otherwise preoccupied, this setting gave Victor a chance to tell Mel and me all about Uro life and history, while it also afforded me the opportunity to provide Victor some active, hands-on instruction in proper navigation and boat handling. I'm sure he was really appreciative of my help, especially when I recommended that he invest in some oarlocks. 
In contrast to the plodding boat, time sped by quickly until, at last we arrived at the fishing nets. Naturally, I was expecting to have my first Luke Chapter Five experience and, as you can clearly see, we were not at all disappointed with our haul:





















OK, so maybe the fish weren't that big, but it should be acknowledged that Lola's giant hands make them look a lot smaller.
Smeagol? Or Gollum? Well, that depends on the day...



Big or small, the fish we hauled in made for a mountain of entertainment for the girls. 

For my part, though, seeing these scrubby fish landed sent a shock of fear through me, as my understanding was that we had been on the lake to catch our dinner! Having been raised on Hamburger Helper by flat-landers, neither Mel nor I have a great affinity for eating fish, let alone tiny, bony junk fish from the murky shallows. From this point forward, my stomach would enjoy no pre-dinner comfort.



Harper contemplating her baby eye-tooth.
Fishing trips like ours are a lot of hard work! Certainly this strain on the system would require a lot of relaxation upon our return to the island:

Lola tethered violently to Mama's hammock,...not at all a disruption to her well-deserved R&R!



No sooner had we recovered from the toils of our long day at sea than we learned that it was school time! Victor presented a few thoughtfully-prepared lessons on the processes of both ancient and modern island building, thatch-house and boat construction, and (very important) how to cook on a fire without burning down the island.































Once class was over, most of the now-enlightened pupils rushed for the swing set.


But, as you must know, I get bored with such things. So, I grabbed Mel and bolted straight to my all-time most favorite-est pastime ever......


....wait for it.....


.....DRESS UPS!!!! IN TRADITIONAL NATIVE GARB, NO LESS!!! JOY!




As anticipated, the girls were also elated to also play dress-up, and were especially enthralled by the dangles that Cristina braided into their hair. It made me green-jealous that my hair wasn't longer.





Once fully costumed, the girls returned to their first love, the swing set. Enjoying both of these concurrently was like finding chocolate in the peanut butter. 



Now, if you know me at all, you know the only thing I love more than dressing up is taking pictures in costumes (channeling my inner-Feulner here)! 
And Mel is an even bigger fan of family photos, although coaxing Norah away from the swings proved to be a daunting task. In the priceless photo below, take special note of the deadly laser beams shooting from my dear wife's eyes as she tries to melt the brain of her jubilant, but disobedient spawn:





Fortunately, Norah survived the episode with her brains intact, permitting us to eventually capture this gem of a family portrait:





And this one....



And this one of the girls being cast away to avoid Pharoah's men....




And, finally, this one (too bad the sun was in our eyes).....




To my profound relief, all of this fun led us, thankfully, to the best TROUT dinner I've ever eaten, after which we all settled down for a long winter's night. Playing all day in the sun at this altitude truly does tap a lot of one's energy.




The next morning we had a great breakfast and got ready for our boat shuttle back to Puno. Just about the time the wait started to get boring, we noticed our hosts and some other locals rallying around to assemble a strange pile of reeds:







Sure enough, they were building their own Uros version of a Christmas tree.

TTP supervising the ladder work





The project looked like heaps of fun so, at the kind invitation of our hosts, the girls joined in to help decorate the tree. (Read: In true colonialist fashion, we co-opted their family Christmas tradition.)





What a great way to kick off the Christmas season!

We hadn't expected to be able to get festive with these great folks. It was really cool, and it spoke volumes to our hosts' desire to not treat us like the tourists we were. Anyway, the moment of our departure came too soon.

Fond farewell to our hosts.



Naturally, the trolling motor pushed us back to Puno at a break-neck speed. As we glided by them, the girls reached to grab on to every Tortora reed that they could, perhaps emblematic of a great experience that we left too early and hope to never forget.