"I'll take that cute little boy."
"Ok, but you have to take the big Gringo with him and his whole family."
"Hmmm, maybe not, that's a lot of food."
We were assigned to Momma Rosa's home. She was sweet older woman who spoke no English and limited Spanish. We were to follow her home straight up the mountain that made the island. Though she made it look simple, at 12500+ feet in elevation, I was huffing and puffing. We made it to their incredibly modest yet cozy and beautiful homestead to eat a late lunch. Reyn didn't want any lunch and chose to go to his room, where he promptly feel asleep.
We were scheduled to meet the group at the plaza for a brisk walk up the island mountain, PachaMama. We stirred Reyn awake and he agreed to go. The walk there was stunning, extremely green and lush, pastoral in a "terraced on a mountainside" sort of way. Once we arrived at the plaza, it was apparent several people were suffering from the altitude. Reyn indicated a hike would be too much for him. Kieran decided playing ball with the local kids seemed most appealing. So Bren went on the hike, Kieran stayed in the plaza entertaining the local kids with his goofy antics and Reyn and I followed Momma Rosa home, stopping along the way to help her collect grass for some animal back home....still not sure what we helped feed, but she pointed out the most important weeds and grasses to collect.
Bren and I looked forward to staying in a room alone together that overlooked the lake. It was enchanting and romantic. Unfortunately, Reyn fell asleep again before dinner and didn't eat anything, again. Bren went to the evening dance with Kieran, dressing up in local clothing, as a pair of Quechua farmers! I laid in bed while Reyn slept because it was pitch black and there were no lights.
It was a rough night with Reyn continually getting up to go to the bathroom. Which entailed walking around the exterior courtyard, down the stairs and then around the kitchen to an outhouse with an oddly plumbed toilet that was flushed by filling a bucket with water and dumping it into the bowl...don't forget to grab the tissue we threw into our bag at the last minute because no one has toilet paper! Somewhere in the night, Reyn developed a fever, too. Dang nabbit, does the goodness ever end?!?
We were awakened by our host at 7 for breakfast and to make our way to our boat for a trip to Taquile, a third island on the Lake inhabited by yet another group of people. Reyn skipped the meal again and was "helped" down the island to the dock by Momma Rosa. By "helped" I mean dragged by the hand at a fast clip! We were joined by the rest of our group and said goodbye to our host families. Note the last photo and the big smile on Reyn's face. This was when he was his most sick and yet he's grinning from ear to ear. He's been a real trooper, enjoying every minute of the trip in spite of so much sickness and discomfort. We were on the boat again for a 2 hour trip to Taquile.
No comments:
Post a Comment