The Isla Del Sol.

The Island of the Sun was full of beauty from its Mars like rock formations and surfaces to the gorgeous white sand beaches and little dainty houses. Aside from the wedding we saw here, we also witnessed a Pig being sacrificed to Pachamama in a ceremony. Before a family kills one of their pigs they have to ask Pachamama first and perform all kinds of rituals before finally slitting its throat and letting its soul leave its body. All of the family members have to be present as they will be the ones eating it. We happened to be walking past as this was going on and despite being chased away from the scene, managed to find a good vantage point with trees to peep through as we thought it would be interesting to witness. I regretted this as what happened made me feel physically sick. After several chants and banging of tree trunks they seemed to try and calm the pig and prepare it by lying it on the floor and taking it in turns to hold it, whilst in the background someone was sharpening huge knives, the noise was ominous. Then the mother of the family used one of the knives to slice open its throat. The screams of the pig were so horrendous, almost human like and you hear it gargling on its own blood as it fought tooth and nail to live. The noise echoed all around the island, we covered our ears and wretched but there was no getting away from it. I found hot tears falling out of me, it was so weird, like I was feeling the grief of the animal. I'm no vegetarian but maybe I should be. This way of killing animals is actually pretty humane and respectful compared to how they're killed in our culture and so many others. Lyndon bit his tongue but I knew what he was thinking from his ivory veggie tower. Later that day I had my eye on a bacon butty and felt so awful.
Aside from that we loved relaxing on the beach & found a rustic little hostel that was a 2 minute walk from it all. We swam in Lake Titicaca and almost died of the cold. It was the most freezing Ive ever been, it stung and numbed everything even in the roasting hot sun. I don't get why it wouldn't warm up in the heat. It was quite refreshing in some ways but we were glad to get out and realised why it had been so deserted in the first place.

Copacabana.

Not the one from the song but a lovely one all the same, Copacabana sits on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. From Puno we got a succession of cheap minibues to and from the border, the type which you have to sit and wait for 15 more people to eventually fill up and then your life's possessions are pretty much cello taped to the top, which means several stops to retrieve them from ditches and what not.  When we got there however we weren't disappointed. The lake was beautifully framed by rows of cafes offering delicious exotic foods that we had been craving for so long. It was definitely the most touristy place we had been yet (we had barely came across any at all so far as its not the season but this place was swarming with them) we were slightly relieved in some ways as it had been quite alienating at times and now we were just two of many and the locals didn't stare. We found a dirt cheap hostel and hired a swan shaped Pedlo (it was valentines day) living the dream. I was even able to shave my insanely overgrown armpits for the romantic occasion with a rusty bic, what a lucky boy. Next day we walked to the top of a huge hill which took everything out of us as the altitude was ridiculous. The view was spectacular of the lake and we watched the sunset hoping to see those infamous UFO's everyone spots there.

A Traditional Wedding.

I had been saying I really wanted to see a traditional Peruvian/Bolivian wedding but thought that they would be so hard to come by and obviously private, however when we arrived on the Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca, we came across one and were welcomed as guests. The wedding was held outside in the most beautiful surroundings set to the backdrop of the lake and a dainty beach. The whole village was in attendance and as I had suspected the men and women were separated but occasionally danced together. Everyone drank copiously and to our surprise started pinning money onto the shirt of the groom, best man and grooms brother. This seemed to be the tradition and a lovely replacement for buying an expensive wedding gift as people were then able to pin on as little or large as they could afford, no judgement made. The newly weds were both dressed quite informally so as to welcome the on coming money without worrying about ruining their clothes. The woman wore the typical multi layered skirts and fancy blouse and tassled shawl combo and a tiny tophat perched on top of her plaited head as she would normally do. Her husband had a swarve trilby on that matched every man in the villages. I learned that like in many other places in Peru/Bolivia, the men only gain  the trilby once they are married and so he would have probably adorned a woolen one beforehand.
There was entertainment provided by many drunken speeches followed by an amazing brass band and accompanied by traditional dances, allowing the women to show off their swishy skirts and carves (their way of flirting apparently).
I managed to get a few photos but didn't want to seem too intrusive as we were lucky enough to be allowed to watch it as it was.        

The Island of Taquile.

 Another island reachable from the south coast of Peru on Lake Titicaca is the Island of Taquile. The inhabitants are Quechua speaking Taquileños and are famed for their unique and elaborate hand knitted/woven handicrafts. The men are extremely well dressed, more so than I have seen anywhere else in Peru. They wear finely made cream blouses with beautiful black waistcoats and matching waist ties and trousers. Their hats represent their marital and social status for example if a man is married he wears a red tightly knitted nightcap and if he is a social leader he wears a multicolored small classic Peruvian knitted hat covering his ears. I found it interesting here that the women tended to blend into the background for once whilst the men took center stage. They didn't even wear fancy hats as in every other place we have visited so far, from the young girls to the elderly ladies, each was dressed demurely in a black vale. The women focus on weaving and the men on knitting. You would never see them together, they seem to live very separate lives. I was lucky enough to get a few portraits whilst we were there. The island itself is very beautiful, with pre-Incan terraces everywhere where they farm potatoes and corn. They pride themselves on having a very different culture to the rest of Peru.

The Aymara people of the Floating Islands.

The vast and majestic Lake Titicaca is 3800 meters above sea level between Peru and Bolivia. It is South America’s largest fresh water lake and could easily be mistaken for an Ocean if it wasn't so still. The lake has many islands most of them being natural, apart from the Uros floating islands. Ancient civilisations that live on the 42 Uros floating islands on Lake Titicaca predate the Incas. The Aymara people are just one example. The Islands are completely fashioned out of reeds and were originally made as a precaution incase of attack so that they could make a get away with their whole village on board. Everything from the houses, furniture, and even children's play areas are cleverly crafted from woven totora reeds that grow in the lake and despite the islands having existed for hundreds of years, they have to be renewed by fresh layers of reeds every 30 years to prevent them from going under. To anchor them down, ropes are attatched to large wooden sticks at the bottom of the lake bed.
The Aymara people and thousands more still live as they would have hundreds of years ago, without technology or modern influence. They cook food on fires prepared in clay ovens on top of stone piles to prevent the floor from going up in flames. They use nearby smaller attatched reed islands to relieve themselves, using the reeds as a natural compost.  As well as fish form the lake the reeds also provide sustainance for food, the white part in the middle once peeled is delicious and has many medicinal qualities.
We arrived on a boat from Puno to visit one of the Islands and were greeted warmly by the Aymara people who welcomed us to sit on reed benches and watch demonstrations on how they make everything. We were then led into the home of a local family where the mother showed us their beautiful living space as well as the amazing handycrafts they had all been working on. Everthing from tiny woven boats to ellaborate tapestries displaying the history of their families. The Aymara people and many more now rely on the purchases of their local crafts by tourists that visit to fund their trips to the mainland and many other opportunities that would not once have been possible, however the influx of tourist interest is also surely challenging their traditional ways and has introduced ideas of a modern world which is not entirely positive in relation to their simple and pure way of life. We luckily managed to find an old 35mm camera in Puno (been kicking myself for not bringing one) and the locals allowed me to take some photo's of their beautiful floating village.

Puno Festival.

The Fiesta de la Candelaria is a festival in honor of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the city of Puno. We were lucky enough to catch it as it only happens once a year and is one of the biggest in the whole of South America. We were expecting a few people fox trotting in masks in the town centre however the reality of it was out of this world.
Over 40,000 dancers paraded through the streets alongside thousands of musicians in incredibly ellaborate outfits non stop 24/7 for 3 days. The work gone into the outfits is unbelievable, all mannor of imaginative creatures and characters from Andean folklore.
On the third day we payed for a cheap seat on the main street so we could sit back and watch it all in the shade with a crate of Puno's answer to stella, making mates with lovely locals. By the night time we were all fezzied out and after dark we were attracting unwanted attention from drunken peruvian men interested in Lyndons lustrious locks and so after unsuccesfully scraping his hair back into a slick tudor ponytail to make it look like a short back n sides, we retreated to hiding in our hostal as our pathetic grasp of spanish was getting us into further heat. Even now on the fourth day (despite the festival being over) the people are still going for gold, brass bands and ladys in ridiculously over the top dresses marching relentlessly through the streets. I admire their stamina but for us its time to move onto more peaceful pastures.

Ariquipa & The Colca Canyon.

Set to the backdrop of four huge volcano's, the most infamous being 'volcano misti' which looms over the city's whitestone colonial buildings Ariquipa makes for an asthaetically pleasing location. After being pretty much robbed by a slimy taxi driver we were unsure of the vibes but we soon settled into a lovely hostal with an amazing view and decided we liked it after all. From here we visited the Colca Canyon, bigger than the grand canyon only less famous. It was unbelievably huge and beautiful, on the same level as Machu Picchu only without the ruins. The most incredible element however was the fact that there were condors, as wide as 8 feet and 1 metre tall flying all around us. They swooped elegantly in huge loops gliding effortlessly on the wind and coming right up close to us stunned tourists, projecting an otherwordly presence. It was like being back in the days when dinasaours existed, they were as big as terrordactils. The condor is held in such high esteem here and is seen as a sacred animal. They live as long as humans and only have one partner which they stay with for their whole lives.

Cusco.

We found our comfort zone in Cusco and ended up staying for nearly 3 weeks. An area called San Blas swallowed us up with its lovely mix of people, banana bread and kittens. We ended up in a hostal which was pretty much someone's home with a few bedrooms to rent out. A lovely man and his mother who made us feel so welcome with a woodburner, a balcony and beautiful courtyard view and plenty of animals to make us feel loved. We also had a majestic hummingbird visiting regularly. The architecture was amazing, a mix of huge Incan stones with mudbrick and a touch of Spanish influence. We met a beatiful lady called Deborah who showed us the crevices we would never have seen and before we knew it  we were eating 2 course meals for 80p and exploring sacred caves and ruins in the rural mountainscape.  Feeling a strange burst of energy, we got memberships for a place called the 'Healing House' which offered yoga, pilates, meditation and hilariously named classes such as sound healing. It wasn't long before this feeling passed however and we found solice in the bottom of Chilean wine bottles. The markets and streetlife offered a rich array of andean handmade clothes and strange foods and there was a 'witches market' with all kinds of ominous looking potions, lama foetus' and pickled snakes for your average lovespell.  We had to drag ourselves away, determined to come back in the future.

The Andean Landscapes.

On our many trips out to ruins and local villages, we have passed through the most beautiful and contrasting landscapes imaginable. From snow capped mountains overlooking poppy filled fields to arid misty mars-like deserts, its been a feast for the eyes. Here's a few pics to give an idea.