Titicaca

Peru keeps AMAZING me with its people. They aren´t nearly as blessed as us in terms of material wealth, but you can tell they have an abundance of wealth within each other and within faith. I see a bit of this within Cusco, but more so on the outskirts of the bigger cities. It is quite refreshing seeing home simple life really can be.

This past weekend we ventured out to the famous Lake Titicaca. Going into it I really didn´t have many expectations, but it is easy to say that it, by far, surpassed anything I could have anticipated. We booked a tour out of Cusco, because with the limited weekends and the nature of tourism on the lake itself we didn´t see that chance of finding a better deal. Besides the fact that we were told facts about the islands by our tour guide, after we had learned the same thing from our host families it was a great decision made.


We started out the tour headed to the Islas de Uras. These islands blew my mind! The people who lived on a family were an extended family and primarily supported each other, not only that but they continuously build the islands and the houses on the islands themselves. The mechanics and planning involved in this are far beyond my level of comprehension to describe. The people were just amazing and friendly!! The kids on the island were by far the best part. You could tell that they loved to see new faces and to play. Lucky them, we are all just as intrigued and tossed a ball around and hung out with all of them until we got to take the ¨mercedes benz¨ handmade-grass-woven boat across the lake to another floating island.

After our short visit we set off for our lake home on Isla Amantani . At this beautiful island we were set up to stay with local families that live up the hill on the island. A.B. and I stayed together and had one of the richest experiences yet. We joined the father of the family for all the meals and enjoyed broken Spanish conversation (none of our first languages) over their typical dishes. This is a place I could probably subsist forever. The food we ate never contained meat, but was very protein rich with Qinoa, Egg, or Cheese. On top of that, meals are always followed by a mint tea called Muña. The tea was so tasty it was enough to warm your heart and soul on any day. We spent the afternoon on the island playing soccer, hiking, and watching dance (really what could make me happier). The evening was spent in traditional clothing learning their traditional dances, it was far too much fun to spin in the traditional skirts. It was truly inspiring to see how simple these people lives could be and just how happy they were having it that way. This small fact will always provide me with a bit of condolence every time I get frustrated that I only have a backpack full of clothes to wear for the next few months.

Perhaps the next best thing to the people of Lake Titicaca was the lake itself. Thanks to our crazy friend Grahm we got to jump of the tour boat into the lake. It was such a refreshing feeling. Cold! But great and totally what we needed after a rainy morning. The Lake water tastes ohhhh sooooooo refreshing as well... thanks to my handy dandy steri-pen! All in all... Titicaca was all but caca, and accordingly we celebrated with our traditional mango.

The trip came just at the right time. This past week of TEFL has been a lot of work. They warned us that the class was back end loaded, and we found out why. I felt like I was in front of the computer three hours a day after class EVERYDAY. Really it isn´t that bad, we all know my focus level is low when it comes to doing homework consecutively... the amount of time doing the homework was a lot less than it should have been. Luckily in my procrastination I got to book my ticket to Guatemala. YUP... here we go Central America!! I feel like after Randi´s visit I will have gotten what I wanted out of Peru, and made some fantastic friends along they way. I may or may not have found my doppelganger. But I am ready for something new, Guatemala seems very fitting in a number of ways. There is a Maximo Nivel there too (the same organization I am taking my classes through). Thus, I will have a network to fall back on, plus I found out after I booked my flight that there are openings at the newly established MN-Guatemala English program. Fingers crossed!!!

Until then we are going into our practical teaching week. We each have a class of our own for a week and then we will be certified teachers! Can you say college on crack?? As I am writing this I am saying nound, adjective, adverb, superlative, blah blah blah... so something must have set in over the past three weeks.