Taquile Textiles

 Trades and purchases 

The ever-popular rechargeable headlamps call for trading without delay. Taquile is known for exceptionally skilled knitting and weaving, which we bring back to Colorado and sell on our Etsy site.

Moises needed cash for school supplies for his grandchildren. His work is exceptional and we were happy to buy quite a bit. 

We help pay for the school supplies of over a dozen children, with considerable help in the form of donations from neighbors and friends back in Colorado. Moises is a more distant relative, so we bought with cash rather than free donation. Education is important, and now we find ourselves pitching in on advanced education for young graduates. 

Bernardo has perfected a design for fold-over mittens. Open for fine finger tasks, such as texting, close for warmth.We bought all he had; possibly our biggest single purchase ever. He did trade for a headlamp and 12v LED strip lights. 

Flora and her daughter spin and weave at Edwin’s house and B&B. 

Leocadio shows Sam a “mountain” of textile possibilities in trade for a few headlamps. 

It seems that everyone is warping a new project on the loom. 

Celbia is making a fully hand-spun wool blanket. Kusi helps toss the balls of yarn back and forth to warp the loom. 

The courtyard at Alejandrina’s home is full of looms in action. 

Olivia is weaving estalias, the special cloth used in the coca leaf ceremony, especially at Easter. 

Kusi helps Noemí this time, starting a wide belt for her son, who will be in his 3rd year of high school this year. 

Some trade items: 

Charge controller, for those still using rooftop solar and batteries. 

One kind of flashlight this year is “sensor activated,” on certain settings you can wave your hand over the light to turn lights on and off. 

Arrival on Taquile 2025

 Boat trip went smoothly 3/16/2025

Sometimes this huge lake can have big waves and winds, but we were lucky this time with a calm passage. When tourists are on the boat, we stop at the floating islands of Uros, where the totora reeds not only make up the islands themselves, but are used to build houses and sculptures and boats. 

Condor sculpture made of totora reeds

A piece of a new island in the making, towed by motor

School Opening Ceremonies 

All the schools gathered in Taquile’s main plaza to inaugurate the opening of the school year: kindergarten, primary, and secondary. The mayor and principals and school officers gave speeches. Teachers performed dances! Students received gifts of notebooks and pens. 

Reconnecting and trade goods/gifts

Our suitcases were full, with a foldable portable solar panel,  a weatherproof fishing coat, books and toys.

¡Esperar no es Fácil!

Waiting is Not Easy! 

Elen has this book memorized within two weeks!

Twisty little metal puzzles livened up our evenings. 

My “granddaughter” is nearly 5 years old. Smart, curious, and fun. “Quieres jugar pelote?” usually starts our mornings.

Good 

itious Food

Silvano and Clever regularly go fishing with uncle Alipio, setting nets at night and gathering them in the wee hours of the morning. We eat very well. 

Fresh Ispi, a native fish

In addition to the fish soup, salty, crispy Ispi are like fishy potato chips. Quite yummy. 

Extra Ispi are set on rocks in the sun to dry. 

Also, typically steamed with potatoes and chuño

This dish, caldo con pejerrey (kingfisher) was served with a piquante sauce of chili, the herb huatacay and onion all ground together in a mortar

And, of course, trucha a la plancha

Arrival in Peru 2025

28 hours after leaving our home in Colorado, and 4 airplane flights, we arrive at our hotel in Puno, the Hotel los Uros, where we were welcomed by the owners as longtime customers. A group of singers from Bolivia had taken up all the first floor rooms so we were on the third floor for the first night, up steep stairs and noticing the altitude. Happily, for the next three nights we were on the first floor.

Silvano joined us looking for an electrolyte-rich soup to help with the altitude, and of course we had coca leaves. The first day was mostly about resting. Then Friday, we got our new cell phone numbers, changed money, explored a little in Puno, and began to shop. Puno still had decorations up from the carnival celebration and was quite colorful.

That evening we took a dozen or so people out for Pollo à la Brasa, a fine tradition where we treat the family to a special dinner.

Saturday is the big Market day in Puno and we shopped for special items that are nutritional treats for our family, like olive oil and Maca. The 2024 crop of olives in Peru was damaged by hard rains during the flowering of the trees. So the olive oil price was quite high, but the vendor told us that the new crop would be available in April with reduced price! 

Because the restaurants are always really busy on market day we had asked Fredy and Rita to have a simple supper at their place in Puno. As it turned out, several families were in town and we all got together in a big happy reunion. Rita made Caldo de Pollo, a rich chicken noodle soup. 

I don’t show pictures of the whole group, because I didn’t get permission from the 4 beautiful teenage girls to publish their pictures. You just have to imagine.