MUNGO EATS Latin America

Two days ago we went to Uros islands.  The Uros islands are floating on Lake Titikaka.  They make island with reeds and slowly pile more and more reeds on top when the old ones get  dry until your island touches the bottom of the lake.  On the island that we went to, the lake is 18 1/2 metres deep.  That’s a lot of reeds!  During the rainy season, the reed’s root-clumps detach from the bottom of the lake and you get reeds floating on clumps of dirt that are a metre thick!  They tie hundreds of these together and place reeds on top of them, side-to-side, front-to-back, then diagonal both directions.  Then they build houses out of reeds and install the radios, TV’s, lights, and solar panels.  Apparently the president of Peru couldn’t sleep knowing that the Uros didn’t have electricity. 

Once we got to the island, we sat down on a big reed bench.  Edwin, the “president” of the island, showed us how they made the islands and they pulled a big chunk of root-clump up and put his hand right into the water!  He said that there are six families on the island, 23 people.  The total Uro population is about 2000.  There is a “mayor” too, who is the boss of all 2000 Uros.  Later they split us up into groups of four, so I was with a German guy, a Brazilian girl, and a Peruvian girl.  The German guy didn’t understand very much Spanish, the Peruvian girl had to translate for him into English, so it was okay.  The woman who was showing us her house had no children, so she had a pretty small house.  Sean and Dad went to the president’s house!

After visiting the Uros, we rode for two hours and got to the island Taquile, where some descendents of the Incas live.  They have this big thing with hats, each hat having a meaning.   Boys under the age of five wear a frilled hat with red on the bottom, white on the top.  Girls of the same age wear a frilled hat with red of the bottom, brown on the top.  Once the boys turn five, they wear a hate that is red on the bottom, white on the top with no frill.  That means that they are single men.  When they marry, they make an unfrilled hat that is all red.  When girls reach the age of five,  they have to wear a black shawl.  Our guide told us that single women have a shawl with big pompoms, married women have small pompoms.  But we couldn’t see any pattern at all, most wore big pompoms, even the ones with children, and some children who were six or seven years old had small pompoms.  So I don’t think there is any pompom pattern at all.   

         

The road from Cusco, Peru to Copacabana, Bolivia:

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Copa! Copacabana! in a larger map

Down from Cusco and then up to the Altiplano (nearly 4,000 m high) and Bolivia:

This morning we left Puno and Peru behind.  We were in Peru for quite a while, about 6 weeks total.  That is the longest we have been in one country since Guatemala!

Apparently, leaving Peru is just as easy as entering Peru, minus the guys in sweat pants and the chickens running around the office.  It took us less than 5 minutes to check out of the country.  Speedy fast!  We got back to the van and the kids said “That’s it?”.  You see they are used to it taking hours!! It was almost as easy to get into Bolivia…almost.  Immigration was a breeze, walk in, stamp the passports, walk out.    We had to wait about 20 minutes for the customs guys to get back from their lunch, but as soon as they were back, we were processed quickly.  We then wandered around to see if we could find the agriculture office to check Mungo in.  We couldn’t see an office, so we asked some policemen standing at the gate if we needed papers for our perro to enter the country.  Unfortunately, the official misunderstood me and pointed back to Peru and said, “Peru is that way.”.  No…perro, not Peru!!!  Apparently, dogs don’t require paperwork to enter Bolivia.  The officer at the gate told us that we had to register our vehicle with the police though, and could we please proceed to the office over there.    Okay, no problem.  The officer wrote down our vehicle info and then we were asked to pay 10 soles, which we are pretty sure just went into the pockets of the cops.  We were not in the mood to argue, especially since there were a couple of Argentinians in the office when we first walked in, who were paying their little bribe.  If they could not talk their way out of a bribe, then it was unlikely we would be able to. 

We were finally done with our paperwork and went back to the gate to get let into the country.  This time there were no policemen standing by the gate.  We waited a while and then watched as another car weaseled it’s way through the semi-open gate.  Okay, I guess we can do that too, but the gate needs to be opened a little more.  So I jumped out, opened the gate, and let Kevin drive through.  Welcome to Bolivia!  Tonight we are in Copacabana, a little resort-ish sort of town on the edge of Lake Titicaca.  We only plan to be here for one night, then off to La Paz.  We checked out the basilica, that holds a famous statue, the Virgin of Copacabana.  Pilgrims flock by the thousands to see her, usually in February.  No pictures allowed in the church, so no picture of the Virgin (although, I am pretty sure I was the ONLY visitor that read the signs).  There was a group of people, dressed in very elaborate costumes, dancing in front of the church, not sure why.  They were twirling funny silver fish as they danced.

Here is a little coincidence.  When we came back from supper, there was a little note stuck on our windshield from the motorcycle boys we made tea for on our way to Machu Picchu.  Seems they are in this little town too.  I think they are following us.  You should never feed strays!!

To visit Machu Picchu, most people take the train to Aquas Calientes or hike the Inca Trail. The train ride to Aquas Calientes can start at Cusco, Urubamba, or Ollantaytambo; it all depends on how much time you have and how much you want to spend.

We did it a different way: drive to the hydroelectric plant near Santa Teresa and then follow the tracks the back way into Aquas Calientes:

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Machu Picchu in a larger map