What a wonderful weekend! Part 1

The weekend began on Friday at 4:00. There was a huge party at the university for Dia del Estudiante! This is a wonderful tradition!! Every year, there is a party to celebrate all students. The students all get presents (WE GOT FANNY PACKS!!!!) and there is a big stage and a musical program that consists of all students from the university. It was quite fun.

From the party, the Calvin crew boarded a tour bus and we headed west to Puno. This was a seven hour bus ride, so we watched Lion King and Lion King II in Spanish. We arrived at the hotel in Chucuito (close to Puno) around 1 AM and collapsed into our beds. I stayed in a room  with Sydney and Amy. It was a really  nice hotel, right on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

We woke up the next morning and had the best continental breakfast I have ever had in my life! There was enough fruit for an army, and some awesome yougurt and stuff to put in it and juice and breads... it was great. After breakfast, we all boarded the bus and drove to Puno, which isn't too far from Chucuito. Puno is the folklore capital of Peru. It's a decently big city on the shore of the lake, and it's very very high - the elevation is 12,500 feet! We all get altitude pills to take from Professor Zandstra.

In Puno, we all got on a boat. It was the perfect size for our group. There were about 20 seats on the inside, but most of the time we were hanging out on the roof or on the back section of the boat that is not covered. The boat took us to the floating islands of Uros. Ok, this is cool.

Here is our hotel room!!

This is right outside the back door of our room!! It's Lago Titcaca!!

This is the courtyard of our hotel taken from our hotel room.

FRIENDS!

We had a beautiful view of the lake!

Here we are on the floating islands! The island is made of the straw-like stuff that you see.

While on the islands, everyone tries on traditional clothing. This is what the women on the islands wear.

Here is our island host with some beautiful things that she has made.

Here is a view from the island.

As we floated away, the women from the island sang a song to us.

Here are more floating islands. They are all over!!

We rode in a boat like this one from one island to another.

So, the floating islands. They are about 30 minutes from shore. And they are really man-made and floating. They are made of this water grass stuff that grows in the lake. The people harvest it and use it to make their islands. When you're walking around on them, you can tell that they are floating. They move a bit. The people who live on these islands (ranging from 5 to 25 families per island) live very traditionally. They wear traditional clothing, they live in very small structures and they make a living through the tourists who come to visit. They sell their textiles (which are beautiful).

On the islands, we also got to go on a boat ride on one of their traditional boats made out of the grasses from the lake. It was super awesome!!!

Life on these islands is so very different from what I am used to. Oh my. There are lots and lots of islands. I don't know if tourists come to any given island every single day or if they rotate, but the whole thing does make me feel slightly uncomfortable. We went to the islands, and it felt kind of like we were going to a zoo, just to watch how they live. The people there make a living by letting a bunch of strangers play dress-up with their clothing. I am so very very glad that we went and glad that I got to see the islands. My world definitely got bigger - I had no idea that people live in ways that are so very different from my reality. I learned a lot, but I'm still kind of uncomfortable with how it felt like we were making a spectacle of these people who live on the islands.

I'll continue about our weekend story tomorrow!!!

Oh God, I thank You so much for the wonderful weekend we had! Thank You for our group and our laughter and the time that we got to spend together. Oh man, God thank You for the beautiful things that You created!! You creation took my breath away, God. And God, You know I'm feeling uneasy about some of the tourism we did. Show me Your thoughs, Jesus.