As usual, the Janda fam has been busy for the last couple of days. Saturday we traveled by train from Cusco to Puno, a city right on the famous Lake Titicaca. It was fantastic to see the Peruvian countryside for ten hours and made me truly realize how I've grown to adore Peru (but I'll get to that later). Puno is at about 13,000 feet above sea level so altitude adjustment is a never ending game for us gringos, and it's one that we're constantly the underdogs. Luckily, the whole family handled the adjustment quite well.
On Sunday we were off to explore Lake Titicaca. To give some facts about Lake Titicaca, it is the highest navigable lake in the world, is comprised of fresh water, and is divided in half between Peru and Bolivia. The first stop was to visit the floating islands of the Uros people. THEY WERE SO COOL. These people fled the Peruvian mainland after the Inca took over and over the past several hundred years have developed a way to make reed islands that float on top of the lake. It was fascinating to learn about their way of life and the values of their community. Then we were off to the island of Taquile, this one not floating, to also witness their way of life, listen to a bit about their culture and enjoy a lovely lunch. The vistas from Taquile were absolutely stunning, it reminded me so much of the Mediterranean coast of Greece, with the brilliant blue water and jagged rocky cliffs. Traveling by boats through the lake, I was drawn to the natural beauty of this place. Growing up in Michigan, I think it's only natural to love being on, in or around the water... I mean, we have to love it, the state's a peninsula. And being on this giant lake where people spoke Spanish and had countless different ways of life was like an oasis for my ever curious soul.
Monday we traveled by bus over the Peru-Bolivia border and then upon arriving in Bolivia boarded a hydrofoil to go to Sun Island and later to Huatajata to travel again by bus to La Paz. According to myth, Sun Island is the place that gave rise to the first Incan ruler that led to the Incan empire. Also the Sun Island is home to "fountain of youth" like waters. Now, to avoid turning into a fetus if it actually did work, I abstained. However, it was unbelievably entertaining to watch Allison splash herself with some of the water just for fun. We then arrived in Huatajata, boarded our bus and headed to La Paz, our final stop on the tour. Today we had a city tour of La Paz. The morning was jam packed going to "The Valley of the Moon", a folklore museum filled with masks, pottery, feather costumes and textiles, the main square of La Paz, and the "Witches Market." Later we had a wonderful farewell dinner at the National Museum of Art.
To think that this is my last full day in South America is a notion I don't want to process right now. This has been my home for the past seven weeks and the idea that in 48 hours I will be back at Lighthouse Ct seems so foreign, ironic I know. I've traveled a lot and seen many places... however Peru is probably one of the only places that I actually consider myself to know. Throughout these past seven weeks, I've seen so many different ways of life that I feel as though my eyes have truly been even more opened to more of the world around me.
A dear friend of mine asked me how my heart was doing in all of this a coupd of weeks ago, and the question really hit home (as most of the lovely Danielle Alaimo's questions do). My heart has been broken more times than I can count by the things I've witnessed, but God really helped me all through it. He had me seeing a beautifully tragic reality in so many different and unexpected ways: the raw emotion of mourning from the screams of the mother, the truly beautiful condition of Jefery and his love of life even though he can't live it "to the fullest" by our society's standards, the joy and zeal of Valentino and Sanjury (two children that have HIV) that never ceases and they are always dreaming big despite their grave situations, the metamorphosis of the self conscious mother with HIV to the confident Peruvian woman just because someone cared about her opinion, Heidi and Maité's faces when they are told that they are special and worthy of love, Cristian's excitement about someone holding his hand... and I could go on and on. In the past when I went on missions or service trips, I would come home slightly depressed about it all, especially when I got back from Nicaragua. However, here, here (and when I went to Guatemala in January of 2011) was different. I now look at life and poverty through a looking glass of hope, faith and love and not out of hopelessness and depression. Yes, this world is very much broken... but it's a reminder that none of us can do anything on our own, if we could, earth would be heaven, and we all know that's certainly not the case. I'm constantly humbled here, and I don't want that to change. My time here in Huancayo, Peru as a whole and my brief stint in Bolivia and the time spent with the Huancainas has forced me to take a real look at myself and at others. And for that, I'm eternally grateful.
Thanks for reading and keeping tabs on my life south of the equator. Yes, I will be returning to the great north shortly in one piece (that is if I make it through customs). I hope you all have had an amazing summer so far and that ultimately, I glorified God and was true to myself in the process of this blog.
Dear brothers, let us not love in word or tongue, but in action and in truth 1 John 3:18
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