Day 12: Exploring Chucuito, a local Sunday market, and Copamaya village – 5.12.19

It was Mother’s Day and also the eighth day of the Festival of the Cross. Families brought their families’ crosses to leave at the cross in the central plaza of Chucuito. Then there were big family celebrations that included eating and drinking lots of beer into the night.

This Inca ruin was a fertility temple. Guess what those two statues are in front of the temple walls.

Yes, these statues are what you think they are. Couples who have just been married or who will be getting married come here for good luck in having a family. Our tour guide thinks these statues were added by a local hotel owner to encourage tourism. Even the steeple of the chapel has a phallic symbol on top!

A saxophone quartet was already playing when we passed this house around 11 am. The party would go on all day long. Cases of beer were being carried into the house. Peruvians are noted for their partying until they are drunk!

We had to be careful not to take many pictures since it was not a tourist area. The sights and sounds were amazing. Mestizos everywhere buying things and making deals.

I had to laugh. Cell phones have come to even rural Peru. This little one was engrossed in a game or video on the cell phone.

We saw a girl’s soccer game near the market. It seemed strange to see the players in skirts playing in bare feet. They looked like they were having a great time.

Our group tried our hand at bartering. Pepe bought a bunch of bananas. Here the mestizo was putting quinoa grains in the blue bag by the handfuls in order to buy the bunch of bananas. When one of our tour group said the wanted choppa, which means extra, the mestizo added another two handfuls of grain. The deal was done! We gave the grain back to her. She was surprised and the other ladies watching wanted to also make a deal with us!

A visit to Copamaya village was next. We got the opportunity to gather with several members of the village. First the mestizos said their names, ages, and said how many children they had. Then we took turns giving our names, where we were from, our ages, and our professions. Our local tour guide, Fausto translated the conversation from their local language to English .

Tall Beth, Jana, and Deb got to try on skirts and jackets just like the ladies in the village. We also got to throw potatoes in the oven made from clumps of clay. The potatoes were then baked for about an hour. Then we got to try one at the lunch that followed.

Short Beth and I sat with these three ladies to eat our lunch. Beth could talk to them in Spanish and translated the conversation in English for me.

Potatoes and more potatoes, fava beans, quinoa, patties of breaded cheese and quinoa soup were on the menu for lunch.

Before we left the village, our new friends sang a song for us. We sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to them in a round led by Tom in our group.

Our group leaving the village. From left to right Marilyn, our local guide Fausto, Tom,Jana, Tricia, Joel, Deb, Dan, Dori, Tall Beth,Joann, Sharon, Short Beth, and Scott. Pepe our guide took the picture.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Chucuito again to see how the celebrations for the Festival of the Cross were progressing. The town folk were dancing along to music to this band on center stage.

Folks from our tour group joined the dancing in the plaza. I joined in as well. I danced a number with the mestizo on the left. He was very jovial. I think he had way too much beer!

In the evening we went to a restaurant in Puno that had a dancing show. Dan and Scott joined in with these two dancers on the final number. I think they had a great time.

What a way to end a very full day in and around Puno and Lake Titicaca! Tomorrow we will be heading to the Floating Islands and Taquile Island. Since the Floating Islands were one of my “must see” places in Peru, I was excited. More adventures tomorrow!

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