Day 270
Puno, Peru
Sunrise escaped us................................
After having an early night last night on Tequile Island we STILL ended up missing the sunrise which was meant to be about four or five am. This is when the Tequile people get up and about..to the sunrise...and they are meant to be quite spectacular on this island....
It was so SILENT it´s no wonder we slept on...the nights are silent, the mornings are silent...the whole island is silent. We felt if we farted it would create a stir!
It was around 6am when we finally arose..after a really chilly 6 blanket night in a single bed. No morning shower as it was cold (freezing to be honest!) and the sound of Percy´s boots on the pavement indicated it was breakfast time!
The Alexander Flowers ¨homestay restaurant´ was tended to by his son and breakfast was a fluffy pancake and jam and their local bread..which was a flour doggh that was fried on a gas stove. Because there is no elecricity everything is either solar pannelled (which didn´t work either, hence the candles over dinner last nght) or by gas. They used gas to fry the bread. Then came eggs..
Do they ever stop eating? It´s healthy..but geepers, i can´t keep up the pace that´s for sure. One dish is surely enough? I asked how they all kept so skinny - unlike on Uros Is where the women lack exercise due to being on such a tiny island, the women here are skinny..as are the men.
Of course the logical answer was that they don´t have vehicles (which is why it is so quiet!) and everything is done manually...collecting water, tending their animals, agriculture and just daily living.
People on this island have never even heard of TV! Some have, when their son´s go to Lima to work..but mostly...they are immune to the technolocial advances of the rest of the world.
What a great way to live eh?
Even tourism here is limited. After breakfast we chucked on our little front packs (we left our big packs back at the hotel in Puno) and trekked our way back to the Main Square to see if there were any textile for sale. That was afrer we saw a demonstration of weaving, knitting (by one of the men) and spinning by Alexander Flowers himself. It is something they all do...as if the cone shaped hand spinning device was attached to them at all times!
On the way back we saw teenagers heading out to the field with their axe shaped agricultural devices slung over their backs (the girls still in their heavy, layered and colourful skirts) and men getting ready to improve the roads by carrying cement equipment and buckets..and children walking down the path.
I saw three children walking by..the little boy of about 4 ahead..and a girl of about 7 carrying a baby of about 2. That is the way of it...the elder girls look after the babies. We saw it a lot. The women are rounding up alpaca´s and the elder girls and tending to the babies. I took a photo of the kids..and they skiddadled after filling their little outstreched hands with the gift of soles. (They always know how to put out their hand for a coin when tourist want photos!!!)
Unfortunately the Market Square was not yet set up with the textiles...only the movement of little boys playing soccer seemed visible.
It must be the off tourist season. Perhaps because it is rainy season now..from Oct till March.
It was time to get back on our ramshackle boat to head back on our 3 hour trip to Puno anyway..so we climbed the 500 steps back to the port and got ready for our history lesson of Lake Titicaca from Percy.
Thank god the boat did make it (on 3 of 4 cylinders) back to Port Puno...
Jose had kindly arranged for us to have a shower back at the hotel where we´d left our luggage which was not a blessing in disguise as it was FREEZING....but refreshing. Honestly...i don´t think i have had so many cold showers as we have had here in South America!!!!
By 2pm we were ready to head back to Juliaca in a private vehicle, guided by Percy in readiness for our flight to Lima.
And that´s where we are now...BACK IN LIMA!
