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 The Islands are completely fashioned out of reeds and were originally made as a precaution incase of attack so that they could make a get away with their whole village on board.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.

San Pedro.

We had heard a lot about San Pedro, considered a sacred cactus in south America, used to give otherworldy experiences or to supposedly communicate with God and as medicine for those suffering from serious illness or those who want to connect with 'Pachamama' (mother earth). We had bought some to take by ourselves however a weird coincidence happened when we bumped into a lovely pixielike lady who  asked if we wanted to be a part of a San Pedro ceremony in the mountains on the day we planned to take it. We took part in the making of it with the group that she had gathered, which involved removing all of the spikes, stripping off the waxxy layer and delicately peeling off the green bits and putting it in a big pot to boil for 8 hours. It was tough labour as the cactai are huge but exciting to be a part of the process and she insisted we had to put our energies and intentions into the potion if we were to take it. We also had to fast 24 hours before, which was a huge challenge as were used to eating every couple of hours, we cheated a bit but I'm not sure it made a difference. Two days later we all met at the crack of dawn and set off to the mountains, finally settling by a beautiful waterfall with so much to look at and explore. She began the ceremony by dousing us in 'spirit water' (potent alcoholic florida water) and burning a wood called Palecentro, which she then blessed us in with the amazing naturally perfumed smoke. We took it in turns to drink a cup, passed around clockwise, handled by a male and female and blessed by Julia's smoke. We wern't entirely sure of the reason for all of these rituals but one thing we were sure of was that it tasted horrendous and it was a challenge not to vomit. Apparently vomitting was normal which was a relief as we all purged (as Julia called it) at some point that day. Once the cactus kicked in we were emmersed in the paradise all around us. We climbed, paddled, covered ourselves in mud and built a campfire to sit around. Most of the small group were peruvian local boys who knew the mountains like the back of their hand and despite our painful grasp of spanish, we managed to bond without language as we were all experiencing the same thing. The rest of the group was made up of lovely dutch and spanish girls. Julia had a drum that seemed to pierce our senses with every bang, she gave us Shakra cleansing and tickled my aura with a variety of feathers, you could not write this stuff. It sounds so hilarious I know. Its difficult to put into words how it felt but I can see why its held so sacred. After twelve hours of magic it began to get dark and the local boys led us back safely through the dog infested woods by moonlight to the beat of Julia's majestic goatskin drum.