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| Street Rooster |
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| Street Rooster #2 |
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| Older couple bashing rocks... |
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| Vet clinic |
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| A whole lot o' garlic |
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| Puno Carnaval |
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| Puno Carnaval |
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| Puno Carnaval |
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| Yunguyo Plaza |
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| Yunguyo Plaza |
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| Yunguyo Plaza |
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| Home sling shot production in Yunguyo |
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| Home sling shot production in Yunguyo |
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| Snoozing elderly man |
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| Family visit in Ilave |
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| Family visit in Ilave |
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| Family visit in Ilave |
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| More Puno Carnaval |
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| More Puno Carnaval |
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| More Puno Carnaval |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| Missionaries Intra-Zone Carnaval water-fight |
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| A happy dog |
What a wild week we have had! We have lived here long enough to warn everyone we know not to travel to Puno in February during the celebration of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the city. It is one of the largest festivals of culture, music and dancing in Peru and is the third largest celebration in all of South America. Naturally, on a mission assignment, we traveled and stayed in Puno Friday, Saturday and returned home on Sunday.
Before we left though, we got the thrilling news of our eighth grandbaby's birth, her name is Norah Aliyah Hasler, born to Glenn and Jenae. We were thrilled to get the news but due to our being incommunicado we did not see her until we got home from Puno. What a beautiful baby girl! We are so blessed though we do miss home just now.
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| Norah chillin' with Athena in the New Mexico Sun... |
We were also amazed to get a package from our kids in Austin. We did not truly believe that one could arrive. We were excited to get a care package complete with grandchildren's artwork and photos, and candies! :) It took two months to arrive, in any event, not an easy thing. We were very grateful!
So, back to our Puno/Near-Bolivia experience. We were very fortunate to get a hotel room and when Rich bought the bus tickets the price had gone up from S/40.00/per person to S/70.00/per person. The price was going up to S/80.00/per person the next day. The bus we traveled on was very comfortable and the scenery was breathtaking as usual, but we were glad to get off the bus after the seven hour ride.
We made our way to the hotel which is just off the main plaza. The plaza was jammed with bands, dancers and hawkers selling everything from balloons to cotton candy. It was a noisy happy party. The music, beating drums and fireworks stopped about two am. We slept like babies after that.
On Saturday, we travelled to Yunguyo, about two hours from Puno. Yunguyo sits on the Peru/Bolivia border. Many years ago, we traveled through Yunguyo on our way to La Paz, turning an hour long trip into five… Long story for another day.
In Yunguyo we visited with a man from Mexico who has moved to Peru with his wife and child. She is from Yunguyo so when he married her and took her to Mexico, it was with the understanding that one day they would return to Yunguyo. He is a mover! He has inspired a total rebirth in this small town that has gone from an attendance at church in the thirties to seventy last week! He is quite a guy.
We visited the home of a widow who, in her most humble home, manufactures sling shots for sale in Bolivia. She lives with her children who are leaders in the Primary of the branch. They are hardworking and inspirational women. Her only son is eighteen and having the typical struggles of a late-teenage boy. She wept telling us of her woes but these are amazing, strong women.
Peru, and Bolivia for that matter, are awash in women who have been abandoned by men. In this case, her husband died. In most cases, the men just walk off and leave the women. It is a terrible social trend and has to do with alcohol and a lack of regard for laws and rules. This all plays along with machismo that leads to infidelity. However, the ghastly thing is, that often, mothers and even wives excuse their son’s and husband’s bad behavior as something that cannot be helped. Men are just that way, you see… It is pretty disgraceful. There are good and faithful men who stand up and support their families, they are rare, but they do exist.
In Ilave, we met the branch president and his lovely young wife, who have been married for about four months. We went to visit her parents and discovered where her most agreeable disposition comes from. Her dad is a wonderful guy with quite a wit and desire to help others.
We loved our trip South along Lake Titicaca. The fields are green and it rained some on us. We saw healthy potato fields, quinoa, qiwicha, qañiwa, tarwi (Lupin’s big brother, it looks just like it, only produces edible lentil-like beans). It was quite the festival of plant life. There were fields of habas, fava beans, we think. The agricultural vistas along the lake would make Van Gogh green with envy and are truly inspirational.
The lake itself, the highest navigable lake in the world, is just plain huge, about twice the size of The Great Salt Lake. The waters are deep and normally pretty tranquil. We have been along it many times and yet, it still mesmerizes us. Storms came and went during our travels due to the time of year and so, it provided a constantly varying view. It was very beautiful, and we took not one picture because we saw it all from a bouncing bus...
When we got back into Puno, it was full-on fiesta. We had to elbow our way through crowds of onlookers, and even squinch and squeeze past gyrating dancers and weave our way through swaying horn and drum bands, just to get to our hotel. We tried to go out to eat dinner but wound up just buying water and bagging the whole scene. We ended up having a delicious dinner in the quiet hotel.
Love the pictures! (Especially the Norah one - hadn't seen it yet.) That rooster looks very sure of himself.
ReplyDeleteI often forget just how many women are abandoned in Peru. It's a really terrible social problem.
Yes indeed, he is a very cocky rooster, (totally intended)...
DeleteIndeed, we live the abandonment thing every day but I do know that things have and continue to improve, it is just slow going! We get impatient.