Peru - Reaching the top of Taquile Island

This is the usual load carried up that stone stairway for the restaurant at the top. Most of the carriers are the older islanders, to my surprise. Also, almost all those with a hand otherwise free will be working with wool thread.

Larger version is 129k.

This is at the top, but there was still a wee bit to go, as I remember. This is another group that was there before we were and I have no idea what the buildings there hold. I welcome any information on this too. The restaurant is around the corner , a few steps up and then a small stairway down. Most of the dwellings seemed to be on top as well.

There looks to be some slight earthquake damage, and earthquakes are rather common in Peru.

At the restaurant we were given a choice of delicious fresh lake trout or a chicken dinner. Most of the people there had done the Inca Trail and I heard varying accounts of how difficult or easy it is.


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    The next page holds final photos from Taquile Island, whose islanders stubbornly resist the comforts of electricity, cars and even bicycles but whose younger residents are already tuning into the noisy modern age . Tours to the islands used to be run by city slickers from Puno, but the islanders handle it all now, and the effect of tourists can be controlled better, with more comfortable interaction, than at other places where tourists are of course rightly seen as buyers. One popular item is clothing of the Island.