Monday, October 24, 2005

Puno, Peru

We have spent three days in Puno visiting the highest navigable lake, Lake Titicaca. The name Titi means Puma in Quecha (the native languge) and the puma represents the Quecha people. Caca translates roughly to rock or bowl. So, imagine a bowl in the mountains filled with water for the people at 3810m. Its high. And large.

Shannon and I took an organized tour to some of the islands that still preserve a native way of life. It was pretty cool. We first stopped at a group of islands that the people make out of reeds. Imagine a floating water bed and thats what the whole place felt like. It is layered reeds floating on top of the water and have a lot of give when they are walked upon. The people make their homes, boats, and trinkets all out of the reeds. Very interesting.

Next we stopped on an island that mainly does subsistance farming and weaving. On this island we stayed with a host family for the night. It was a good experience living in someones home and not just a hotel. We ate what the family ate, walked around the island, and watched an amazing lightning storm in the evening.

We visited a third island where the men do all the weaving and the women do the spining for the textiles. On this island the men and the women both wear their traditional garb which is not the case in most places. After that, we had a choppy 3.5 hour boat ride back to Puno.

Tomorrow, we leave Puno for Copacabana in Boliva. We will still be on Lake Titicaca. There we will take a few days to see Isla del Sol which is supposed to be the birthplace of the Incas. I have met a few people traveling south to north and they have all had good things to say about Boliva. One is that the people there do not see tourists as walking cash or candy machines. The cost of living is supposed to still be very cheap. And the scenery is also stunning.

In other news, I am looking for some free stand alone picture software to shrink fotos. This 33kb/sec (bits MikeX0r, bits.... dumbass, I thought you went to computer school) is shit. I am looking to get photos that are not huge on the website. Hopefully then, I may get to add an of doom modiferer. Until then, we shall see.

Hope all are well.

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