During our time in the southern city of Puno, Peru we had the opportunity to take in many of the surrounding sites. On one particular day we walked around the city and visited the local markets, observing some of the celebrations that were taking place in honor of the Feria de la Virgin de la Candelaria, an annual festival that lasts for eighteen days and for which people travel from all over the country to participate in parades, processions, and religious services in honor of the Virgin Mary. We were fortunate to observe a few of these and were struck by both the beauty and complexity of many of the costumes, as well as the strangeness and odd representations of what we’re not quite sure, e.g. children wearing Native American outfits and holding guns and a young participant wearing a gorilla costume. Either way, we really enjoyed the festive atmosphere and traditional music played throughout.
On a walk to the shore of Lake Titicaca we found ourselves in the middle of Puno’s weekly market – a hub of activity! The items for sale ranged from kitchenware to toiletries to clothes to heaps of candy to fresh produce. There were potatoes of all varieties, and many dried peppers, spices, grains and meats. One in particular was a dried and skinned type of fowl that we did not get a picture of, but have had the image imprinted since. It was fun to walk through the market, if a bit overwhelming; we thought if we lived in Puno we would have no idea how to select where to buy what we needed for the week! We’re sharing a few of our favorite shots from the market.
oveja - sheep
The afternoon before we left for Cusco, we ventured out to the famous Sillustani ruins just outside of Puno. The ruins are very different from those that we have previously visited. At the site are the Chullpas (pre-Columbian funeral towers) of Sillustani, beautifully set on a peninsula in Lake Umayo.The Chullpas were built by three different pre-Colombian cultures, the Pukara, the Aymara-speaking Collas - a tribe that dominated the Titicaca region before the Incas after the Pukara was split by differing allegiances in Bolivia and Peru. At the site are three different style Chullpas: the rougher appearance of the natural unsmoothed stone of the Pukara, the curved, but smoothed edge stone of the Colla, and the smoothed and neat edged stone of the Inka. Each tower contained the remains of each culture’s nobility accompanied by their riches and even their servants in some instances. It’s kind of a downer to learn that grave robbers have since removed their contents, but fortunately many of the towers are well preserved and were definitely worth the visit. We had a great tour guide who ran the whole three hours in Spanish, thank goodness we’d been prepped with six weeks of intensive language practice. A point to note regarding these ruins is that much of the engineering involved in their construction is more complex than anything the Incas built. “Ancestor worship and kinship were integral parts of Aymara culture, and the chullpas were built to emphasize the connection between life and death.[2] The insides of the tombs were shaped like a woman's uterus, and corpses were mummified in a fetal position to recreate their birth. Some of the tombs also have lizards carved into the stone. Because they could regrow their tails, lizards were considered a symbol of life. The only openings to the buildings face east, where it was believed the Sun was reborn by Mother Earth each day.” (www.aboutperu.com)
The site was really amazing and definitely held some mystery. The lagoon surrounding the site, as well as the island in the center provide mystical stories for locals and give the site it’s magical beliefs.
Paz y Amor!
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