Friends new and old.
Amigos y amigas,
Since our last update, we visited Lake Titicaca’s fabulous islands on a boat-driven side trip.
It was probably the most fascinating part of our trip so far. We started by visited the floating islands of the Uros. Hundreds of years ago, the Uros, beset by enemy tribes, retreated to the lake and built themselves islands using the reeds. Essentially, these people spend the bulk of their lives on big floating boats (eating, sleeping, cooking, fishing, working handcrafts.) They were quite friendly and welcoming, and Sami found a perfect playmate in Salenia, born just 11 days before Sami was born. (It’s amazing how different Peruvian children are at even the same age, but there will be more discussion of this at another time.)
From there we spent a night in a family’s home on la Isla Amantani and briefly visited Isla Taquile. These are both beautiful/peaceful places with no cars or other moving vehicles. In fact, there are no horses and only a few donkeys to carry heavy items up and down the exceptionally steep paths. They’re slowly getting more technology (electricity, wheelbarrows, running water) but essentially, this is still like stepping back in time 100 years or more.
As a complete contrast, we followed this with a trip on the Andean Explorer — a luxury train line run by the Orient Express company. This was a 10 hour trip that included drinks in the observation car, a three-course lunch and high tea. There we had a pleasant chat about education, children and politics with a mismatched set of lovely Brit retirees – one English, one Scottish – which made for a colorful afternoon.
We’re now in Cusco, which will be our home base for the next 5 days. Cusco is the ancient Inca capital but also appears to be the most modern & cosmopolitian city in Peru.
In other news, I’d like to propose a moment of silence in memory of my digital camera, who died peacefully in her sleep last night after a full and devoted lifetime of service documenting my daily whatnot. Farewell, loyal friend. Her place has been taken by a hard-won replacement in the rough and tumble digital camera marketplaces of Avenida El Sol in downtown Cusco. She has big shoes to fill.
Also, a moment of silence for the poor household pet Ben had for lunch today. The noble Cuy did its best to preserve its little rodent life, but Ben’s dietary adventurousness prevailed. However, Cuy had his last revenge: he arrived chowing down on a red-hot chili pepper, and was way more food than even Ben could consume in one sitting. Ben was defeated. Ben 1. Cuy 1.
Best to everyone back home — we’ll drop another update after our side-trip to Machu Picchu this weekend.
Será continuado…
Cheryl, Ben y Sami
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