Puerto, Puno and the Virgen de Candelaria

Jungle deluge

Itchy jungle dogs

Jungle chickens

Jungle kitty

Men working???

Dengue watch

Puerto Maldonado plaza

Marvid and Yahir

Mystery project

Chicken trafficker 

Escape artist chicken

Puppies for sale

Coca leaves for sale 

Women's intimate wear and videos...

Herb dealers

Amargura (bitterness) steps

Last weekend Rich rented the stake patriarch’s car and we were able to do all of the running back and forth we needed to among Ayaviri, Choquehuanca, Puno and Juli. The Poulsens traveled with us and we had a great time. For three years running we have said to everyone “don’t go to Puno during Carnaval! It’s insane!” Naturally, we planned our trip there again during Carnaval and it indeed was insane! 

The Fiesta de la virgen de Candelaria is a festival in honor of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the city of Puno, Peru, held in the first fortnight of February each year. It is one of the largest festivals of culture, music and dancing in Peru. In terms of the number of events related to the cultures of the Quechua and Aymara peoples and of the mestizos of the Altiplano, and also in terms of the number of people directly and indirectly involved in it, it stands with the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the Carnaval de Oruro in Bolivia as one of the three largest festivals in South America. (Wikipedia)

There are many "native dances" from the various communities in Puno and sets of dances organized in different quarters of the city, mostly those known as "costume dances". These performances directly involve 40,000 dancers and some 5,000 musicians, and indirectly involve about 25,000 people including directors, sponsors, embroiderers and the makers of masks, boots, shoes, bells and other items. It really is a sight to behold! 

The hotel we stay in is right off of the Plaza de Armas and Saturday night the music finally stopped at 3am! Rich was awake to hear when it ended… Thank goodness for earplugs! We were able to get some sleep. 

We left Puno for Juli early Sunday morning making our way around drunks were sleeping in the streets and the exhausted dogs. The early morning drive around Lake Titicaca is spectacular and we never tire of it. We arrived a little early for Rich’s meeting so we were able to  watch the street scenes and doze a bit. While Rich met with the district president the Poulsens and Julie attended sacrament meeting. We arrived back in Puno about 12:30 with most of the streets blocked off and the dancers and musicians gearing up for the big Sunday festival. 

We tried to get to the Poulsen’s hotel but it was impossible so we pulled over and they bailed out and made their way by foot. They spent the week doing family history work in Puno, Juliaca and Sicuani. 

It took us about an hour to negotiate the streets and get out of town, finally winding and backtracking our way down to the lake and escaping by that route. We stopped at the top of the mountain to get gas and admire the breathtaking view of Puno and the lake. When we were leaving the attendant gave us a calendar as a “remembrance” of our stop there. We thought, “great a wonderful picture of Lake Titicaca!” When we unrolled it, we had a huge laugh! It’s a photo of a child dressed like hipsters in what could be downtown Chicago! Ahh Peru…

We had a fairly calm drive home, as calm as one can be on Peruvian roads with Peruvian drivers. We arrived home about 8:30pm exhausted but glad to be home.

Our work week was busy as usual with our english and quechua classes thrown in. Our twin sons Glenn and William celebrated their birthdays on Monday. Rich flew to Puerto Maldonado on Tuesday and back Wednesday afternoon. He had mission assignments to take care of there.  While there, he witnessed one of the most impressive downpours of his life. 

Julie’s little boys didn’t show for their english class Wednesday afternoon which was strange. We were just ready to leave to celebrate Rich’s birthday with a nice dinner when the doorbell rang. It was Julie’s students at 6pm instead of 4pm. She said, “we’re just leaving,” but let them in for bit. They came with their moms and other siblings and an uncle and surprised Rich with a birthday cake! The boys were so excited and we spent a wonderful hour with them. Yahir, one of Julie’s students opened the fridge and asked if they could have pickles. They had tasted them for the first time several weeks earlier during one of Julie’s classes. Their moms and their uncle had never tasted a dill pickle either so we had cake and pickles to celebrate Rich’s birthday! What a remarkable evening!

We have really come to love this family. The little boys are always so excited to come for their classes. They are among a lot of people we will truly miss.

Rich had a presidency meeting Thursday evening and we worked hard and ran lots of errands on Friday. Saturday morning we walked to the Baratillo, always an adventure, picked up a couple of Julie’s dresses that she had the tailor fix, grabbed some lunch to bring home and enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing afternoon together. 

Our time here is moving at hyper-speed but we’re trying our best to enjoy every moment. We love our friends here and the adventures that never seem to end.