Puno

Okay to everyone that was wondering...we are alive and we have not been kidnapped. ;) I am just not good at keeping up with a blog. I knew the pressure was probably more than I could handle which is why starting one was a hard decision. We are going to try and catch you up on the highlights since last October and not spend a lifetime doing it.

Last October Tim's parents and our nephew, Alan came to visit. We all jumped on a bus and took a trip to Puno, Peru and the Sun Island of Lake Titicaca. It was about a 5 hour bus ride. We even had to get off the bus at one point and jump on a boat while our bus caught a ferry to meet us on the other side. It was a beautiful and nauseating ride with the increase in the already insanely high elevation and windy roads, but we had fun anyway.

Lake Titicaca- Road from La Paz to Puno




Sillustani- Pre Inca ruins outside of Puno

Max in front of a tomb.

Yes, Max stands out a little down here. We paid this little girl to have his picture taken with her, but we also had people asking us if they could take their picture with him (we didn't charge). Poor Max, he is not one that likes attention.

Floating Uros Islands- These were amazing! My favorite part of the trip. Just about a 15 minute boat ride from Puno are about 40 or so of these floating islands. They are made out of Totura Reed that grows in the lake. They are continually putting new layers of the reeds on top to stay afloat and dry. Families live in family units on these islands and the homes, boats, etc. are made of the reeds. You can see some of the live roots growing in the bottom right hand corner. Just before we visited here the Friend or the Ensign (I can't remember which) had an article about an LDS boy and his family that live on one of these islands. We were hoping to meet him, but we just went to one of the islands.

The Uros people make a living by fishing, but more than that I think they live off of tourists like us. They told us about how they live, let us try on their clothes, gave us a tour, and then sold us tapestrys and other things they had made.

These girls at the bottom were singing us a song about how although we are different we are all the same. First they sang it in their language and then in Spanish. Yes, I was crying. It is amazing to see how differently God's children around the world live. I have been very humbled over this past year to see how people survive and the joy they can have no matter how simply they live.

We took a quick walking tour of Copacabana, Bolivia on the way back. This is where we caught a Catamaran to head out to the Sun Island.

Isla del Sol (Sun Island)- very sacred place for the Incas

Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana. "Our Lady of Copacabana" is the Patron Saint of Bolivia. A Patron Saint is an advocate in heaven for a nation or place. People come from all over to worship her. Outside the church there was a huge line of cars decorated in flowers that were being blessed. When you buy a car in Bolivia many people bring it here to be blessed so they are safe in it.

Here is Max trying out an Inca shovel on Isla del Sol.

Tim, his dad, and Alan all had a turn rowing the tourist Totura boat around part of the island.

On the drive back we were going through El Alto (the very poor area right above the city of La Paz). On Sundays they bring their animals to sell/trade. We saw lots of fun sights like this! There were also vans with live sheep tied to the roof. One of the reasons La Paz is never boring to us.