(Photos: Uros, one of many islands made solely of reeds; Warren and charming 4yo Kelly who´s ambition is to be a clown when she grows up; Andreas and I wearing the hats used by our homestay family to identify us)
We had a fantastic homestay, and there was no urine involved. Perhaps, as Nick speculated, it´s just Americans people feel inclined to honour the way Rachel had described ; )
The people who live on the islands within Lake Titicaca do have some other interesting practices worth mentioning: when courting, boys use hand mirrors to reflect light onto the girls they fancy. If the girl fancies him, she responds in kind. If they don´t have mirrors, they throw pebbles at each other. Courtship is brief, and couples are sometimes engaged for as little as a week before they marry. Despite this, divorce is unheard of and any who do break their marital vows are ostracised by the community.
On Taquile island, the women spin and men knit. It is important that the guys develop good knitting skills, as this is used by the women to judge their suitability as husbands: the men knit themselves hats which the women they court fill with water. If the hat wasn´t tightly knitted, it leaks, and its owner would be dismissed because of his laziness. If a man is lucky enough to snag himself a wife, he is responsible for embroidering her clothes with decorative motifs. She, in turn, makes his belt into which she sews strands of her hair gifted to him when they marry. Her husband will wear this belt for the rest of his life. Sweet, huh?
We had a fantastic homestay, and there was no urine involved. Perhaps, as Nick speculated, it´s just Americans people feel inclined to honour the way Rachel had described ; )
The people who live on the islands within Lake Titicaca do have some other interesting practices worth mentioning: when courting, boys use hand mirrors to reflect light onto the girls they fancy. If the girl fancies him, she responds in kind. If they don´t have mirrors, they throw pebbles at each other. Courtship is brief, and couples are sometimes engaged for as little as a week before they marry. Despite this, divorce is unheard of and any who do break their marital vows are ostracised by the community.
On Taquile island, the women spin and men knit. It is important that the guys develop good knitting skills, as this is used by the women to judge their suitability as husbands: the men knit themselves hats which the women they court fill with water. If the hat wasn´t tightly knitted, it leaks, and its owner would be dismissed because of his laziness. If a man is lucky enough to snag himself a wife, he is responsible for embroidering her clothes with decorative motifs. She, in turn, makes his belt into which she sews strands of her hair gifted to him when they marry. Her husband will wear this belt for the rest of his life. Sweet, huh?
Uros is one of several floating islands made from the reads which grow in that area of Lake Titicaca. The reeds are bundled into blocks which are then anchored to keep the islands from drifting. When families sharing these islands have disputes they can´t resolve, they simply detach their share of their reed island, and join a different island community.
No comments:
Post a Comment