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.