Harvest time on Taquile

Early Potato Harvest
We helped digging and carrying new potatoes.

Digging potatoes

 After harvest we  pour out the sacks so we don't carry the dirt home.

Small mid-morning harvest

Sam carries potatoes; all I have to carry are the hoes

Silvano repairs the Chakitaklya, the Andean Foot Plow,
for early sod-busting in preparation for next year's planting. He has made the curved parts from manzanita wood, carefully pruned and chosen for the right shape.

Brand new chakitaklya

assembled with rawhide

 After wrapping tightly with rawhide, Silvano drives sticks under the hide to make it even tighter. When it dries it will be a strong tool, ready to take busting sod to an art form.

make it really tight

Harvest time is also Back-to-School time. 
Here are some pictures from opening day celebrations:

Elementary school kids get balloons

Secondary gets confetti in their hair

Secondary School also had a bit stonger pomp and circumstance:

Seated in the upper right are the officers of Taquile

I am told that less than a quarter of the students show up for the first week. However, education on Taquile is getting more strict. They doubled the number of teachers in the High School this year, and most of the elementary grades have two rooms per grade. I hope this means more attention and smaller classes.