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.
The relationship of Tara Miller and Sam Brown with Taquile Island, Lake Titicaca. Includes travel blog: to follow chronologically, start at the bottom of the page and work your way up. -----also check out our pottery at paoniapottery@blogspot.com----
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Colorful scene from Ivan’s wedding |
These days, we've stayed in touch regularly with our family in Peru. Hooray for the internet!
Their economy has not really recovered from the political upheavals in Peru that followed economic disaster of the pand*mic (I don't know if these things are searched and bothered, hence the *asterisk). Tourism is currently very low in this place that has invested a lot of the community's energy into developing that tourist industry. Therefore, Sam and I have continued sending money (sometimes with help from other godparents) to help out over a dozen families, at least enough to avert hunger keep many/most of them on Taquile island. Living in the big city for awhile to earn money is not a bad thing, but is not for everyone. We are so blessed for the integrity and willingness of our son-by-ceremony who acts in our name when we are not there.
Next post will have stories: Ivan, our oldest grandson's matrimonial ceremony--and Fredy's! Kids growing up! Dancing videos from holidays. These will be news and pictures sent to us by Silvano, Olivia, Delfin, Asunta. So please consider following this otherwise rather neglected blog.
Right now our textile sales page is seeing an uptick in sales activity. We brought suitcases full of beautiful textiles when we returned last January, and it appears we will not be joining holiday fairs this year (?). So check out our Etsy site to see what is most available: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TaquileFriends
Pictures coming!
Fortunata is making blankets from the wool of her own sheep. She starts by caring for the sheep, shearing the sheep, cleaning and the spinning the wool.
Next she dyes a few colors and weaves the blanket. Her loom is staked to the ground; each thread is pounded into place with a polished llama bone. Here her granddaughter looks on:
Spun yarn is ready to weave.
Fortunata has been busy.
In 2020, while we were “stuck” on Taquile during the p*ndemic, I got ahold of both white and red clay and made a few little pots. Fuel is not abundant, so they were never fired—that is, until now.
THE PROCESS
Of course, one of the first uses was clay-play with the kids:
Next, I made a fairly ambitious planter with rich texture. I used a technique with corn cobs to raise the walls, which I had learned years ago from Guatemalan potters in Totonicapán.
The clay had some small rocks and plant material and took some cleaning.
Some of the process:
I also found some white clay and decided to make simple little boxes for serving a selection of tea bags, pleasant for both for the family and for tourist guests at our homestay dining room. This photo shows it in the raw, unfired state, the texture inspired by Incan rock work:
And the same piece fired:
FIRING
SUMMARY
First, I regret that I forgot to take pictures of the unfired pieces before they went into the combustibles.
The fuel was extremely heavy, mainly because of the soil that was mixed with it. In a future attempt I will pull the pottery to the top of the pile right at the end before putting on the hot flash of the eucalyptus leaves. I think that hot fire could have burned away some of the carbon and given some color variability to the white or red clay.
The clay IS fired. Besides sitting in the rain overnight and remaining intact, I put them on top of the propane burner until a spot turned red with the heat. I was trying to burn off some of the carbon to be able to see the clay color. I got only a very small revelation of that uncarbonated clay. This clay and firing method could certainly be made into cook pots that would work just fine on directly on open flames. I may yet slip them into a wood-burning cook fire and see we can burn away some of the carbon. If I do, I will amend this post and show the final product.
GRATITUDE
Finally, I’m blown away that this indigenous household was able to safely store raw clay pottery for 3 1/2 years until I was able to come back and fire it. I’m grateful for their kindness and support and for the love that we share.