For this trip, we took a night bus. So Javier came and picked us all up at 9:30 and took us to the train station in Cusco. He coudn't come with us this time though (we had switched weekends because of some kind of strikes or unrest or something that he wanted to be sure to avoid). He did have a girl named Jessica who was from Idaho come with us though.
Night buses are a good time. I actually slept fairly okay. However, we arrived at 5:30 and having to wake up and get on with your life feels really hard at that time of day. We went to our hotel where we rested for a bit and left our bags. Then we met up with these bicycle tuk-tuks for our fun ride to the lake.
We arrived at Lake Titicaca!
It was a beautiful morning, and we had this boat all to ourselves.
Off we go! There's Puno.
So, after not very long, we got to the floating reed islands of Uros. Sooo cool and fascinating.
We stopped and got out here and met with this family who are members of our church.
Greetings all around.
They gave us a cool talk on how they make and maintain their islands,
we sampled the reeds (to me it was like eating a leek that doesn't have any onion-y tang),
and the dad bore a really cool testimony. I didn't understand hardly anything of what he said, but the Spirit was there nonetheless. They were a really cool, fun, admirable family. (From my hour or so of knowing them. :) )
They also showed us their goods that were for sale.
The pom poms they wear in their hair have significance, and show whether they're married or single or whatnot. I don't remember the specifics.
For some reason the younger daughter, I think her name was Luna, had a baby duckling she let us hold.
So much happy color!!
So these houses are real, but they don't actually live in them... they had other houses somewhere else. I don't remember the story of why exactly. But even so, I thought it was cool that the one thing hanging up is a picture of Christ.
I think they used to have a ward building on the islands that they'd go to, but after the pandemic (I think) too few people were going, so now they go to Puno.
Brett wanted a tapestry/weaving thingee, and I really wanted him to get this blue/black one, but he chose the brown and tan one.
Walking on the islands feels super cool--so springy. We took our shoes off for a minute to feel it.
Navy and Luna got along swimmingly.
And we laid on the island to feel how that felt too. :)
Then the dad brought a reed boat so we could go for a ride.
Rowing is so peaceful and fun. They pointed out the schools and other churches and things like that. Mostly just people's houses though.
Brett took a turn rowing.
And Talmage. Apparently it's harder than it looks.
Then we said goodbye and they went home and we went back on our boat.
Riding on the top of our boat was really cool. And, nobody fell in, so that was a success.
Brett and Ethne felt inclined to jig, so they did.
Oh man, am I ever glamorous. hahaha
!Viva el Peru!
The water was gorgeous.
We had a two-hour ride to our next stop.
Somebody taking some sheep to town.
