Lake Titicaca, part 2

Last night at Lake Titicaca. I am having my new favorite drink, a pisco sour, nibbling on local cheese and fried fava beans (heavenly!!). I´ve just watched another multi-hued sunset. The sky here is incredibly dramatic and everchanging. Huge white clouds hug the mountains; then miles and miles of piercing blue and in the distance huge rolling grey stormclouds that look like a whole other world to explore.

We are the only people tonight here except for young Peruvian woman and her mother who have been our companions on two excursions to islands in the lake. Yesterday, Armando, our guide, took us to see his family on one of the floating islands, artificial islands made of reeds, where we were hugged and kissed and entertained by his mother and sisters. And today we went to a rocky island about an hour away where we had to climb up a steep hill to enjoy a lunch of potatoes and corn roasted in the fire and quinoa soup while overlooking terraced farms descending all the way to a sandy beach. And, yes, Steve made the trip up and down!

Of course, yesterday I had to get a little exercise in preparation for my hike up the Inca Trail so in the afternoon Armando and I walked up from the hotel to a rocky point overlooking the penisula. We walked past rows and rows of quinoa (did you know it was a beautiful purple plant?), fava beans and of course potatoes. No cars and no motorbikes just the sounds of the animals--donkeys, pigs, cows and lots of stray dogs. At the top we sat and watched as the people walked up the hill and back to their homes leading herds of sheep or donkeys carrying loads of alfalfa to feed the animals. It seems a hard life here in the Andean highlands but no one is starving. The real poverty is in the cities down below.

I feel incredibly lucky to have experienced this place and this life if only for a short time.