Taquile Island
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Taquile Island
Taquile is an emerald gem nestled on Lake Titicaca and surrounded by shifting shades of blue. It is a fascinating place where the community still comes before anything else and its collective organization seems to function in perfect harmony. It wasn't long before the shy Taquileģos became accustomed to my presence and questions with characteristic sincerity. This is astonishing considering that only 20 years before outsiders were so rare that residents hid at the sight of strange faces.
Living on Taquile's 452 acres are 1,850 primarily Quechua-speaking people, who for countless generations have grown potatoes, barley and broad beans on terraced slopes. During the1960s, the poorest Taquileģos eked out a living by fishing from reed boats on the deep waters of the lake, and many had to migrate to other parts of Peru to find temporary work.
The only way to reach the island was by wooden sailboat on a 12-hour journey from the departmental capital of Puno, about 15 miles away. But in 1976 when the South American Handbook described an out-of-the-way, unspoiled island (Taquile) on Lake Titicaca, life would never be the same again for the islanders.
Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador and Peru have been promoting "sustainable" tourism since the mid-1980s to generate revenue and employment while striving to reduce or avoid negative impacts. Peru has enormous opportunities in many "new" forms of tourism that include nature watching, archaeology, trekking and mountain climbing. Peru also possesses some of the most exciting heritage resources in the world, such as Machu Picchu, the Nazca Lines and the Tomb of Sipan.
Unique sites located relatively close to the "Gringo Trail" such as Taquile Island generate high demand from adventure-nature enthusiasts. From only a handful of tourists in the early 1970s, over 27,000 visitors came to Taquile in 1996 and at least 15% of them spent a night or two in a family guesthouse. Yet this is not entirely good news. Today, the islanders are struggling to maintain their simple lifestyle and customs in the face of rapid globalization and modernity.
Location
Taquile is 35 km to the east of the city of capital Puno of the department of Puno in the south part of Peru. The island of Taquile is located in the bay of Chuchito, surrounded by the peninsulas of Capachica and Chucuito. Its extension is of 6 km2, its maximum length is 5.5 km and its width one of 1.5 km. The altitude between the port and 950 the 810 town varies slightly of 3 msnm and to 3 msnm respectively. By it found in an Andean high zone, approximately, the maximum temperature is about 19ºC (66,2ºF) and the minimum is about 3ºC (37,4ºF). The climate in the Andean region is cold and dry, with a rainy period of four months of duration.
The island of Taquile is greatest of the Titicaca lake. The geographic space of the island is propitious so that the tourists can cross great part of the same one, accompanied by the settlers, who form an approximate population of 1.700 inhabitants. The inhabitants of this hablantes island them call themselves “taquileños” and are quechua since they inherited this Andean language from their ancestors and cultures.
Whoever wishes to visit it must take a boat in Puno and after almost four hours from trip to disembark in a rustic port and to climb to a discharge and lofty stairs.
History
The name quechua of Taquile is “Intinka”. In the island of Taquile there are tracks of the past, was part of Imperio Incaico, that date from the time preInca, whose vestiges are observed in the high part. This island was one of the last Peruvian localities that in front of capitulated the Spaniards in century XVI. Finally, Carlos V was taken in name from the emperor and possibly passage to the cut of Rodrigo de Taquile, whose last name today has come off. The Spaniards prohibited the incaica traditional clothes, reason why the islanders had to adopt the clothes farmer who until today use.
The first written mention of Taquile is in a 1580 document, when the island was adjudged to the Spanish Pedro to him Gonza'les. Since then the property happened through diverse hands and their inhabitants worked like settlers of those properties. The darkest time of the island was when it was used like a political prison until the first years of century XX. Also the island served briefly, in century XX like a prison, but in 1937 a singular fact happened.
The old settlers who continued using quechua, began to buy land parcels and during the following thirty years they continued doing it, until finally the island, after almost four centuries, returned completely to its old owners. In she remained relatively isolated, but then it was discovered by the tourism and now she is one of the preferred destinies of the department. From 1970 the island is exclusive property of the taquileños. One thinks that the island worked as it nails between the cultures and the distant points between the lake. At the Taquile present time it is a community that independent and works like all organized.
Description
The island has in the lower parts a port made with stones of the same island, in which they disembark to the boats or rafts that bring passengers from Puno or from other neighboring islands. Soon an ascent by stairs of more than 567 steps is taken to arrive at the town of Taquile. In the top, they wait for the traveller. A spectacular view of the lake and a simple stone cover that give the welcome him to one of the most singular communities of Peru. From here it is possible to observe almost the entire island and a great part of the dominions of the lake. The nature is the best view in all the lacustrine route has been generous with the island because one has granted him varied wild vegetations that has been enriched with eucalyptuses and cypresses brought by the man in the decade of the '50. These species adapted to the climatic conditions of the region. In the waters that surround Taquile, the canes of totora grow and in slopes, the well-known gramínea like ichu that serves so much for the food as the ewes like making the ceilings of the houses.
Society
The society taquileña this cradle in the collective work and the moral code Inca “loves sua, loves llulla, loves qhella” (you did not rob, nonlies and you will not be sluggish). It is an example of social organization and communitarian work. A gratefulness is adjudged to him to the Belgian Christian Nonis to impel the social development of Taquile, by means of the qualification and education on the tourism to the taquileños settlers. Actually its economy is based on the fishing, the agriculture of the Pope in the platforms and mainly tourism, receiving 40.000 tourists annually. The taquileños are especially known by their weaves, those that are within the finest Peruvian crafts. It is hard to believe that the spinning and the weaving are done mainly by men.
Taquile also counts on a radio station that works with generators, nevertheless the villagers have decided not to use them and to decide on solar paddles. A peculiar fact is that within the island it does not inhabit any dog nor there is the police presence either because crimes are not committed; neither vehicles because the ways are only pedestrian, and the presence of the state authorities is almost invisible. When problems appear, they are solved in the assemblies of Sundays. Also the customary customs govern other aspects of their lives: the marriages, the agricultural celebrations, rites, the system of mutual aid. However, the taquileños are not impermeable to the advances of modernity: they count on schools, they use photovoltaic motor boats, honeycombs to generate electricity and lately it is possible to make telephone calls from the island.
References
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