Easy day of meeting friends...

Visited a history museum in the morning, and then met David and Roberta Levin, friends from the U.S., for lunch.  Had ceviche, a local specialty of raw fish marinated in lime juice.  Spent most of the afternoon doing 'chores', ie, writing and mailing postcards, finding a fax machine, doing banking, etc.

Praise The Lord and pass the pig...

We wandered into the main square this morning, hoping to visit a museum or two.  We didn't realise today is a huge public holiday, Corpus Christie and the Festival of the Guinea Pig.  Thousands of people gathered in the square as the day went on.  A mass was held on the steps of the cathedral with 51 priests, 2 cardinals, and 1 bishop.
We met another Australian couple and ended up spending a very enjoyable day with them.  We joined in the festivities and ordered the traditional guinea pig for lunch at one of the stalls.  Peter abstained as his stomach still wasn't up to par.  The meal was surprisingly good!
We then witnessed the main parade with religious floats so large on platforms, they were each carried by up to 40 men.  We have never experienced anything like this before.  Great fun.  We hope to visit museums tomorrow!

Returned to Cusco

We took an 8 hour, 'luxury' bus trip back to Cusco today.  We had upper deck front seats with a good view, but we were in full sun, like a glass house.  Shades did not work, seats did not incline, and air conditioning was woeful.  Started at 8:30 am and hit some sort of road protest...hundreds of people had put large rocks on one lane on the one road out of town.  Huge traffic jam.  Once clear of that, we had a flat tire.  Now, being two hours or so late, the driver drove like a maniac and Peter and I, having an upper front seat, saw all the near misses.  Because we were late, the driver did not stop at the lunch place, but drove straight through.  Then we were stopped by police, who came on board and dragged a Peruvian lady off the bus amidst loud protests with braids, hat and skirt flying in all directions.  (She, so the gossip went, was smuggling goods in from Bolivia.) All in all, a very hot, unpleasant trip!  We arrived safely.  I was hungry, Peter felt sick.  We are now back in our comfortable hacienda.  Peter is asleep.  I am catching up on emails and blog.

People living on Floating Islands

We did a day trip on a boat, out to Uros, the floating island people.  Incredibly interesting, but their way of life and culture is doomed.  They subsistance live and supplement their lifestyle with tourism. But I can't see the younger generation continuing this tradition.  They make the base of their community on a bed of reeds that float.  Hundreds of years ago, they did this for protection of not being found by the Spanish invaders.  No reason to live like this now, except these are the poorest of the poor with no land and only fishing skills to exist.  There are 5 to 10 families living on each island, 56 islands, 2000 people make up this culture.  Each family on an island has a bed hut made of reeds, but everything else is communal on that island.  The communal kitchen is the only fire, and this is built on a clay pot base.  One island holds a school, another a hospital, and another...a 7th Day Adventist Church.  Their boats are reeds and this is how they travel between islands.  The islands are not tied to each other, but anchored to reed beds for safety in times of storm.

Can't get more basic than this...

Slept in this morning. We are at 13,000 feet or more and we both feel sluggish and can't eat.  We did a tour this afternoon of a pre inca site and also visited a 'farm' if you could call it that.  Rock huts in a walled complex...a bedroom, a store room, a guinea pig house, a corral for the alpacas, a hut to store alpaca poo (used for fuel), and a sort of indoor/outdoor kitchen hut.  Their diet is corn, potatoes, and a sort of carrot, oats, and quinoa, alpaca and guinea pig on occasion.  No electricity or Running water.  Really basic living. And it is freezing cold.  No fire or warmth in the huts..  The whole family sleep in one bed for warmth.
The bed is a base of rocks, then two layers of reeds, then a layer of alpaca skins, then blankets.

Lake Titicaca

Did a 10 hour bus trip today, from Cusco to Puno, a city on the side of Lake Titicaca, 11,000 ft., going over a 14,222 ft pass.  We saw big herds of alpacas and llamas above 12,000 ft. All of the inhabitants of this area live on subsistence farming, using bullocks to plow their fields. There is not a car, tractor, or vehicle of any kind in sight. Some dwellings have electricity, most do not.  No running water to be seen. Trip was interesting as we stopped in many places learning about the history of the people. We visited Museums, villages, archeological sites, and churches. 

It seems to me that the jihad Muslims of today are following the same path as the Spanish took with 'Catholicism' 500 years ago in this country. Anyone who did not give up their faith and accept Jesus as the only saviour were savages, infidels, and deserved to be punished. Terrorism through religion reigned supreme. 

Filling in details...

When we were on the Gapagagos Islands, we had no Internet. I took notes, and now I am filling in those dates, I.e. May 12th-19th.  So if you want to know about our trip there, go back to those dates.

Today, in Cusco, Peru, we visited some amazing Inca sites.  Their knowledge of construction, astronomy, agriculture, teaching methods were all remarkable.  They had no alphabet so no written language. They used strings with knots to count, a precursor to the abacus.  Their culture, buildings, and lifestyle were totally destroyed by the Spanish conquerors in the name of Catholicism, but really it was to claim gold and silver for the Spanish crown.