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.