Crazy flights and the black market

We got to Lake Titicaca and went on a tour where we visited the Taquiles islands and the floating islands. At the taquiles island they had amazing traditions! The men knited and the woman weaved. On the hike up we saw a eight year old boy knitting a red hat with some blue and green. That hat is know as the hat for the married men! The unmarried men wear the same style hat but white and red. The woman on the other hand- when they are younger than 15 they wear a cape covering their faces. Once they are 15 and a woman they get a cape with tassles on the end that are either blue and white if they are sad and dont want to be talked to but red, orange, yellow and white if they are happy and want to be talked to. All of this color coating is indicators. We ate a delicious lunch on Isla Taquiles but I couldn´t get much down with the way treava looked and felt (my mom will write about it).

We (Mckenna, Jamie, Terri, Dennis, Vienna, My dad, My mom, Treava, I and our tour group) took the boat ride to the floating islands ridding up top overlooking the beautiful veiw. We arrived at the Island to see the locals running about covering up the non-waterproof stuff. When I stepped off I thought I was on a trampaline! The spungy reeds that they use for the island is very springy! When I looked in their house I went WOW. I would no want to sleep in a house that size with my WHOLE family (it was tiny). That was their tradition to hoast a whole family in one of those tiny, tiny houses! They gave us a demonstration on how they make the islands. What a process! First they have to cut chunks off the reed roots and make an island by binding then with a rope and two sticks. Then they ancor the island to the lake bottom. Layer by layer they cover they whole island with reeds. They made their reed houses and staked them down to the island. Their newly built island will now last them 80 years PLUS! We took our last leg of the boat ride back to Puno and Treava was worse. My mom posted somthing on this.

The next day due to Treava´s conditions we booked a flight to Arequipa. HAHA, when we got to the air port we found out the flight had been delayed so we waited and waited until we found out that the flight had been cancled. They were very apologetic and gave us the option of going to Tacna or Lima. Anyways we ended up in Lima with them putting us up at the Sheraton (which is like a resort here, I don´t understand why but it´s way nicer than the Sheraton in the states!) with breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can guess how happy I was! Durring our time in Lima we went to the Black Market (Polvos Azules) but didn´t spend much time there due to the flight that they gave us to Arequipa (our original desination). We went to the airport to try and get to Arequipa for the second time only to find out that our flight had been DELAYED again. We we shure we were going to have to spend another night in Lima, which didn´t bother me, Vienna and Treava but did my parents. Luckly for my parents the weather cleared up and now we are here in Arequipa!

Today we went to the museum of the Incan Ice prinsess who was found on the top of a volcano nearby to here. She was very well preserved along with the other oferings found at her site. It was very impresive to see all the fivehundred year old artifacts along with the one of the Incan princesses herself. She was sacrificed to the gods and had been kept at a special camp for roalty that were going to be sacrificed. Acording to sientist she knew this her whole life. At age 14 she waslked up to the top of the vlocano with large procession including the priest, king and many others. At the top they sedatated her with Chicha (their alcoholic breverage) and coca leaves. She was wrapped up in the fedal possition and the preist gave her a hard wack on her head fracturing her scull and killing her. That is only the story of Juliaca but there were many more bodies found than just her´s! I miss you all and hope this gives you a good update!
Noelle