Again, the open windows of the Toyota Corolla wagon (without shocks) let in the fantanstically scented air of Puno. Diesel really does smell delicious at any hour of the day...at altitude...when you already aren't getting enough oxygen...[As a side note, Amanda does look like one of the prettiest and most friendly of all terrorists, doesn't she?]
We arrived in the main square of Chucuito and there should have been crickets chirping and perhaps a tumbleweed rolling through. It was one sleepy little town and blessedly devoid of turistas. It was such a relief to be away from the madding crowds. And I felt like we were a little closer to seeing how the residents of this area really live.
Off the main square is a beautiful church.
Inside there are some seriously scary and gaudy statues depicting the stations of the cross. I declined photographing them. Within minutes of arriving, too, schoolchildren began following us.
The view from the church is amazing, too. It overlooks the main square and (say it with me!) Lake Titicaca:
After perusing the church and the cemetery, we all began wandering the streets. The quiet streets, with only school children following us or staring at us as we went by. Over the next half hour or so, every now and again some animals would look up to check out the turistas walking by:
The sheep could not care less, though:
After feeling as if we had seen all there was to see in sleepy Chucuito,we started wondering where this infamous Inca fertility temple resided. Fortunately, the 10-year-old that duped Amanda into buying some knitted finger puppets...
...knew EXACTLY where to find the fertility temple. In fact, she and her friend had a whole schpeal memorized. So, for 2 soles each, these two girls showed us around the small garden of stone penises that is the Chucuito fertility temple.
Cocoa leaves are offered and placed at the base of the statue and chicha (a local juice-like drink) is poured on the top of the statue. That's most of what I gleaned from the girls' Spanish monologue about the offering ceremony. Good thing the girls speak slowly and I speak....English.
But the wonders of the Inca temple do NOT stop there!! No no, there is also the stone of positive energy:
and (not pictured) the stone with 8 angles; and, the curved cornerstone (also not pictured) that protects the temple from crumbling when there is a sismo (earthquake). Again, snippets gleaned from a tour spoken in Spanish. I was duely impressed by the two little girls, though. They had memorized the tour and didn't miss a beat (not that I would really know if they had...).
Visting Chuciuto was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. I didn't feel like we were somewhere that EVERY turista went. It was fun to feel like the locals thought WE were the curiosity, instead of us walking around looking at the locals that way. This was just a town where folks took the collectivo into Puno for supplies. Tourism wasn't necessarily their main source of economic gain. And the escape from all that was a nice reprieve....
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