Peru – Lake Titicaca – Taquile Island

2013 May —–

The next day we said goodbye to our host families and got back on the boat to go to Taquile Island. As soon as we landed we started up a path and through an arched gateway. Apparently, there are 6 sectors on the island of 2200 inhabitants, each sector is marked with their own archway. We climbed to the small town, which had some history but was basically a market for tourists.

This island is renowned for its knitting and weaving,with the men doing the knitting and the women doing the weaving. All the single women have pompoms on their shawls, the brightly colored ones are worn by the single women, who do the courting of the men. The single men’s hats are half colored and half white, depicting their life is not yet full. When the get married, they have a hat that is completely colored. The mayor of the town has a hat that has ear flaps. This is because in former times the rulers had golden earrings that caused their ears to droop, hence longer flaps to cover the ears. When the ladies get married they cut their hair and make a belt for their husband woven out of their hair (which is saved by their mother since birth) and alpaca wool. It is very stiff and acts as a weight belt for the men to carry heavy loads up and down the hilly island. This same belt is then covered with another brightly colored and woven with symbols and pictures to depict their life as husband and wife. The wife will also make a brightly colored purse for her husband. These are highly prized as showing just what a good wife the man has.

We then ate a a lovely little outdoor restaurant overlooking the lake and covered with cloth to keep the sun off us. I had the highly prized trout, which Canada gave to the people of the lake. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well because the larger trout ate much of the native fish, as did the kingfish donated by Argentina. However, this trout was delicious. Our waiter had the most impressive uniform, black trousers, white puffy sleeve shirt and a black and white vest.

Taquileños run their society based on community collectivism and on the Inca moral code ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla, (Quechua for “do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy”)  I like it!!

Then it was back to the boat, back to Puno and the Hostal Balsa Inn.  Tomorrow into Bolivia…..