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Day of the Dead - a Bittersweet time to visit Mexico

Sadly, too many visitors to Mexico only experience the country in the commercialised beach resorts during the drunken chaos of Spring Break or in the scorching heat of Summer vacation to get their fill of sun, sand, surf, and, yes, one too many margaritas, and Mexico is indeed a fantastic place to have this kind of holiday. But, I recommend visiting Mexico in November instead, during the colourful Day of the Dead celebrations, when the sun is more forgiving, the nights cooler, and the traditions that make this country so unique are evident everywhere. In this way, you will experience a very different Mexico, especially inland, where the towns and villages are steeped not only in a rich colonial history brought over from Spain, but also with an indigenous culture developed over thousands of years, still mysterious to many on the outside.

Here you’ll find cathedrals almost as old and as ornate as any in Seville, Salamanca, or Segovia, but you’ll also see the ruins of pyramids and temples, built when Europe was in the Dark Ages, in villages still inhabited by people whose faces look just like those carved into the stone walls of those monolithic structures, and who practice rituals not so unlike those of their Zapotec, Maya, or Aztec ancestors.

When Cortez and the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico in the 16th century, they encountered many things that must have seemed shocking to the sensibilities of these Catholic Europeans. Not immune to violence, death, and torture, themselves, in Inquisition-era Spain, the Spaniards still saw the Aztec traditions of ritual human sacrifice, veneration of snakes and serpents, and the use of skull imagery to symbolise the cycle of life, death and rebirth, or to honour relatives who had passed, through a severe Christian lens that saw these traditions as blasphemous, if not evil.

Unlike the Christian view of death as the end of life on earth where heaven or hellfire awaited the deceased, here death was merely a continuation or another stage of life, and instead of fearing this inevitable end, they embraced and accepted it in a way that was difficult for the Spanish to understand. For example, many believe it was the winners, not the losers, of the ritual games that took place in the temple ball courts that were ritually sacrificed as a reward for their victory, not as a punishment for losing.

Nevertheless, the Spaniards saw the rituals and imagery as barbaric and pagan, and set out to save souls by attempting to destroy what they found and create a “New Spain”, using the natives as slaves and indentured servants to build cathedrals, churches and missions on top of the very sites where temples, pyramids, and places of sacrifice and religious ceremony once stood.

Yet, despite their efforts, the Spanish could not stamp out these ingrained and ancient beliefs completely, and in some very remote regions of Mexico, Catholic priests even began to abandon their new parishes, leaving these communities without any direct ties to Rome or any authority to represent the Church for almost 400 years. The people were left to create their own interpretations of Christianity, where a wild fusion blending Catholic religion and indigenous tradition can still be seen in these churches today.

To outsiders, the most well-known example of this fusion of pre-Columbian and Catholic tradition is in the famous Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations. The Spanish, in their frustration and desire to win converts, decided to simply make this important indigenous celebration more “Christian” by moving the date to the similar All Soul’s Day on the 2nd of November (also the origin of Halloween) in much the same way the ancient pagan traditions of Northern Europe were adapted to early Christianity over a thousand years before. This blending of traditions eventually won thousands of converts, evident today in the story Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose cloak filled with roses was seen by an indigenous man in a miraculous vision and a Basilica and pilgrimage site for all of Latin America was established on the site where the miracle occurred just outside of Mexico City where this cloak of the Virgin can be viewed, and where these Day of the Dead shrines were photographed.

Originally, this festival for the dead, called Dia de los Muertos, fell on the ninth month of the Aztec Solar Calendar, around the beginning of August, and was celebrated for the entire month, when the Aztecs and other Meso-American peoples believed their deceased loved ones would return to their families. Today, in many parts of Mexico, people still visit the graves of their dead relatives which they decorate with intricate patterns of marigold petals, a traditional flower of death, coloured chalk dust, candles and whimsical, jolly images of skulls and skeletons. They might bring toys or sweets for children who have died or have a family picnic with the favourite food of their departed relatives right next to the gravestone.

Families might also have a room of the house transformed into an altar or shrine laden with their deceased loved one’s favourite food and drink, and adorned with photos, candles, sweet round or skull shaped “pan de los muertos”, or bread of the dead, colourful tissue “papel picados”, marigold flowers and copal incense to clear the path for the spirits return, a glass of water or a bottle of beer or tequila, and finally, smiling skeletons and cute sugar paste skulls, decorated with icing, glitter and foil, which represent the sweetness of life and the sadness of death combined.

In Mexican culture, death is embraced and accepted with humour and inevitability, and like the sugar skull and it’s bittersweet symbolism, is not the end of a life, but simply the next step in life’s journey.

-Text and Photos by Laura Stark

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Mexico evokes mixed feelings for many North Americans these days. Close and familiar, yet so exotic and foreign, Mexico has been that not-so-far-away escape to the sun, in beach resorts from Cabo to Cancun, for generations of American tourists.

But, horrific reports of drug-related violence and murder in cities only a day’s drive from the US border, mixed with deep-seated negative stereotypes fuelled by news stories of illegal immigration and “cheap” Mexican labour coming across the border, have kept some Americans away in recent years. But, plenty of tourists from other countries come, especially from Europe, and even Asia, and this is a good thing.

The negative press in the US media that has frightened so many from travelling to Mexico, shouldn’t be ignored, of course, but any fear of travelling to this diverse, historic, and beautiful country because of it, would be a terrible mistake, akin to an overseas tourist cancelling a trip to San Francisco or Santa Fe because of recent news of gang violence or a mass shooting in Detroit or Chicago. The US is a huge country, and so is Mexico.

Because of safety concerns, many of the tourists that do come, miss the most authentic, historic parts of the country, which can be found inland, far away from the commercialised beach resorts, or cruise ship ports, in beautiful colonial towns right in Mexico’s centre, such as Puebla, Taxco, Oaxaca, San Cristobal de las Casas and San Miguel de Allende. Whether you take an organised day trip or group tour by car or coach from Mexico City, or travel independently by air, using the excellent regional network, pine forests, snow-capped volcanos and vast cactus-covered mountain ranges come into view as backdrops to these pristine, immaculate, 17th-century towns.

Old cobblestone streets lined with colourful, colonial houses, going back to the days of the earliest Spanish settlements, open onto lush, cool, tiled atriums, that have been beautifully restored or converted to boutique hotels, shops, restaurants, and galleries. Lively, buzzing, perfectly landscaped town squares sit in the centre of the grid-like streets, surrounded by cafés and bars under cool arcades with wrought-iron balconies above, where one can sit and get a birds eye view over the square and it’s buzzy, almost continental atmosphere.

The Zocalos, or town squares in the heart of these small cities are bustling with life - families stroll with their babies, couples and old ladies chat on wrought-iron benches around an ornate fountain, indigenous village women sell handicrafts, food, or colourful textiles and clothing, shoe shine men talk politics as their clients read the paper, hurdy gurdy players and balloon vendors entice the children for a coin, while a lively, old-fashioned brass band might entertain in an old-fashioned gazebo right in the middle of the square, all this towered over by a breathtaking, impossibly ornate church or two, built not long after their counterparts in Spain, always open for a mass, a confession, a baptism, a confirmation, a wedding, a prayer… oh, and yes, built for the Spanish entirely with indigenous labour in their efforts to convert the local population....and the world changed forever.

And so we begin another story, a story of a time and place long before Europe even knew of the “New World”, long before Colombus, Cortez, or the Spanish conquest - a high culture with a complex religion, stepped pyramids, temples and ball courts, sacrificial altars, astronomical architecture, calendars, mathematics, and complex, advanced cities. An introduction and insight into this pre-Colombian past, and a must-see on any itinerary in Mexico is the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Luckily, many of the country's archeological sites have been found, saved, and restored over the past few decades and can be visited by tourists, led by guides who are experts in archaeology and anthropology. Avoid the distraction of vendors who approach you to buy souvenirs, and visit the museums attached to these sites, where many of the exquisite artifacts, sculpture, friezes, death masks, ritual items, jewellery, and other objects that were found on the sites have been preserved.

There are incredible structures to be seen here, spanning over a thousand years of civilisation during pre-Colombian times, dotting the landscape of Southern Mexico, from Oaxaca to the Yucatan, to Guatemala and Central America stretching all the way to Peru and The Andes, dating from the late Roman times to what was the Middle Ages in Europe, to just before the conquest of Spain in the 16th century.

Like ancient Rome, Mexico was not built in a day, nor by any one group, but built and re-built by several civilisations through the ages, in different regions at different times, the most well-known being the Olmecs, Toltecs, Zapotecs, Mayans and finally, the Aztecs (along with the Incas in South America) around the time of the arrival of the Spanish. Much that was found by Cortez and the Conquistadors was swiftly destroyed or built over in the name of Catholicism, just as the churches of Europe were built right over pagan Roman temples after the arrival of early Christianity. So, Mexico’s ancient past still lies just beneath the surface, a bit like the people.

Mexico city, the Aztec capital when Cortez and his men arrived, was the centre of a great empire. New archeological finds are being discovered here all the time. Just recently, under the main cathedral on the vast Zocalo Square, they’ve found the foundations the pyramids that once stood in the still-beating sacrificial heart of this vast capital, a temple complex on an island in a massive lake, connected to the mainland by floating causeways and artificial islands, lived on and farmed by a huge population - a thriving Aztec metropolis at the centre of a militaristic society until the early 16th century. The last remaining canals and floating gardens in the suburbs of Mexico City, in Xochimilco, has been a tourist destination for decades, and gives a little glimpse into what the city might have been like during Aztec times...with a little imagination.

But, the enduring legacy of Spain, from the horrific time of the Inquisition, to Mexico’s independence in the 19th century, is not only one of negativity, of occupation and destruction, which indeed happened, but a fusion of two distinct civilisations emerging from a painful past that can be seen everywhere today in modern Mexico, from religion, art, architecture, traditions, festivals, music, language, clothing, to it’s famous food and the faces of the mixed Mestizo people you see all around you, a people whose ancestry is both indigenous AND Spanish, albeit in different proportions depending on which part of the country you're in. So even after 400 years of Spanish domination and influence, it is this very blending of the two cultures that makes Mexico so unique.

So, come and discover this remarkable, fascinating, historic country on your doorstep, venture away from the cultural bubble of the beach resorts at Spring Break and visit the authentic colonial jewels in the interior, climb a thousand year old Maya pyramid in the jungle, swim in a Cenote, learn to make Mole in Oaxaca, eat Pozole in a cafe full of locals, and if you must have a beach, skip Puerto Vallarta and go to the hidden bays of Huatulco instead, and finally, and if you’ve been afraid to come before, don’t be...Mexico will welcome you. Because beneath a beautiful, but still somewhat painful Spanish veneer, a remarkable indigenous culture still lives on, weaving through the fabric of everyday life like a colourful, strong, tightly woven textile—slightly faded and worn, but still cloaking, holding, carrying—everything.

-Laura Stark

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Traditional Andean dance, in the heart of Cusco, at the Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo—a free, nightly, one hour performance of typical Andean folk dances for holders of the Cusco Boleta Turistico. This ticket is valid for all of Cusco’s major attractions, from archeological sites, to churches and museums.

Video by Laura Stark

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Here are some of my favourite images from my travels to Peru, showing the remarkable contrast between the Andes and Amazon regions of the country.

You can see more of my travel photography at http://laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com

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Peruvian Cuisine

Peruvian food is a unique and unexpected mixture of the different cultures and regions—indigenous, colonial, and immigrant—coastal, mountain, and jungle—that make up this diverse country.

Indigenous Andean ingredients like purple and yellow potatoes, Choclo corn, and the aji chili dominate in many dishes, and yes, many Peruvians really do eat roast Guinea Pig, or Cuy, but Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and African Creole influences can also be found, giving a remarkable sophistication and variety to this fusion cuisine which existed long before fusion became trendy.

Not surprisingly, word has gotten out about what is one of Latin America’s most interesting, sophisticated, and delicious cuisines, with the culinary schools of Lima filled with aspiring chefs and Peruvian restaurants now opening their doors from New York to London.

The most famous Peruvian dish is Ceviche, raw fish “cooked” in citrus juice, usually key lime or bitter orange, and garnished with aji chili and onions, steamed giant Choclo or fried Cancha corn kernels, and boiled sweet potato. Its origins are still unknown, and there is great debate whether it was an indigenous dish, or if it was brought from Polynesia or Spain. But, the more likely scenario is that fish from the rich coastal waters of the Pacific was first cured with chicha (fermented blue corn alcohol) or with tart maracuya, or passion fruit juice. When the Spanish introduced citrus fruits to Peru, it’s likely local people simply began to use these instead.

The Peruvian Ceviche served in fine restaurants today is sometimes prepared and presented similarly to sashimi, having been influenced by the Japanese immigrants who came to Peru in the 19th century. Other Latin American countries like Mexico, Colombia, and El Salvador, have also adopted Ceviche into their own traditions, with unique versions of the dish in those countries having become famous in their own right.

Below is my top ten list of signature Peruvian dishes for the first time visitor to try when travelling in Puno, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, or Lima. Of course, the jungle cooking from the Amazon region near Iquitos has its own exciting “Selva” cooking, and we haven’t even begun to cover Peru’s Criollo cuisine, with its African influences. That will have to wait until the next instalment.

Top Ten Peruvian food and drink for beginners:

1. Ceviche

Peruvian Ceviche is usually made with sea bass, aji chili, and onions, in a citrus marinade from bitter orange and key lime called “Leche de Tigre”, or Tiger’s Milk, and garnished with steamed Peruvian giant corn, or Choclo, boiled sweet potato, and fried corn kernels called Cancha.

2. Lomo Saltado

This dish, influenced by Peru’s Chinese immigrants, who have their own local cuisine, called Chifa, is essentially a beef stir fry seasoned with soy, Aji chili, peppers and onions, always served with white rice, and chips made from the Peruvian yellow potato.

3. Causa

This elegant dish, served as an cold appetiser, is a refreshing layered dish of mashed yellow potato with garlic, avocado, poached chicken or seafood, with boiled egg and olives for garnish.

4. Papas a la Huancaina

This tasty dish of boiled potatoes with an aji chili and white cheese (queso fresco) sauce and garnished with black olives and sliced boiled egg, is served as a cold salad or side dish.

5. Aji de Gallina

This hot, creamy chicken dish is Peruvian comfort food, best enjoyed on a cold day with a cold beer. Shredded, poached chicken is cooked with a sauce made from yellow aji chilies, garlic, breadcrumbs, ground walnuts and Parmesan cheese. This strange mixture from the colonial era, with similarities to both a Pipian and a Pesto, but also like neither, is again, garnished with black olives and slices of boiled egg, and served with white rice and boiled Peruvian yellow potatoes.

6. Roasted Cuy

The Quechua living at high altitude had a mainly vegetarian diet of quinoa, corn, potatoes and tubers. The alpaca, along with the guinea pig, were revered domestic animals indigenous to the Andes, and eaten only for ceremonial occasions, with the latter roasted whole, enjoyed much as we would a roast chicken. Today, Roast or Fried Cuy is a common dish in Andean homes, where the guinea pigs are kept in pens and fed vegetable scraps, waiting to become tomorrows dinner. Brave tourists who order a whole Cuy in a restaurant, are usually pleasantly surprised to find it tastes very much like rabbit, or even chicken, and not at all like their kid sister’s favourite pet.

7. Choclo Corn

Choclo is a variety of white corn with giant kernels, indigenous to the Sacred Valley of Peru. It is a common snack found in the indigenous markets of the Andes and is served steamed on the cob with a slice of fresh feta-like cheese, called Queso Fresco.

8. Chicha Morada

This traditional non-alcoholic drink, called Chicha Morada due to its dark colour, is made from Purple Corn boiled with pineapple for sweetness. This refreshing beverage looks and tastes similar to grape juice, but with a milder, less tart flavour.

9. Coca Tea

This light, grassy tea made with dried coca leaves, a plant sacred to the Andean people, is a traditional remedy for altitude sickness. It is a mild stimulant and also curbs hunger, and unlike its illegal counterpart, the dried green coca leaf is available everywhere in the Andes, where it is chewed like tobacco and used in traditional Quechua ceremonies. Coca tea is served free in most hotels in the Andes, to help those suffering from the altitude bends, or “soroche”, and coca toffees and hard candies can be found in most tourist shops in the Cusco area.

10. Pisco Sour

Peru’s potent national drink was invented in a Lima cocktail bar in the 1920’s, and as the name says, is made from Pisco, a traditional grape brandy similar to grappa, tart key lime juice, sugar syrup, and egg white foam, finished with three drops of bitters.

-Laura Stark

(Photos in the public domain)

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Machu Picchu- UNESCO World Heritage site, Wonder of the World, and the most visited archeological site in Peru.

This mysterious “lost city” of the Incas, perched above the Urubamba where this sacred river coils itself around a 7000 ft peak nestling in a semi-tropical cloud forest, dates from around 1450 AD, and was almost completely covered by the jungle when Hiram Bingham “discovered” it just over a century ago. He was looking for a different site, one of the last strongholds of the Incas, when a young Quechua boy led him to this place instead.

Luckily, this remote, hidden city on a mountain, which means “Old Peak” in Quechua, was never plundered or destroyed by the Spanish, because they never found it. If they had, they would have found a ghost town, as the Inca population mysteriously abandoned it around the time of the Conquest.

No one knows exactly what caused this sudden exodus, but European diseases, like smallpox, or rumours of advancing Conquistadors, might have led to the decline of this great Inca settlement, with its astronomical buildings and steep terraces with still-working aqueducts, that could have provided enough food and water to support hundreds of inhabitants.

Many people arrive to this breathtaking view by walking several days on the famous Inca Trail, but in a few short hours by train, on PeruRail from Cusco or Ollantaytambo, and then a short bus ride up the mountainside from Aguas Calientes, you can be at the top of Machu Picchu with all of the trekkers, to take in one of the most awe-inspiring sights in the world and still get back to your hotel in time for dinner.

Photo and Text by Laura Stark

http://laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com

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The Quechua have always been skilled weavers, and textiles were considered as precious as gold in pre-Inca times, today the Sacred Valley has a thriving cottage industry of weavers making exquisite traditional and modern designs for the international market using baby alpaca and vicuña wool, which is softer and more precious than cashmere.

Llamas, Alpacas, and Vicuñas are relatives of the camel, and were the only large domesticated animals in South America before the arrival of the Spanish brought sheep, goats, cows, horses, and pigs to the New World. Thriving in the Andes at high altitudes, Llamas are pack animals that can carry loads of up to 90 kilos, and their coarser wool can be used for rugs, or even rope. The smaller Alpaca, with its abundant, luxuriant coat, produces a wool used for all kinds of clothing, like hats, shawls, sweaters and scarves, and is also bred for its lean, delicious meat. Finally, the delicate Vicuña, a rare and more wild breed, that nearly went extinct half a century ago, has always been prized for a wool so fine, only Inca royalty could wear it, and is today one of the most expensive fibers in the world.

On the left a woman uses a traditional backstrap loom at a weaving collective in the Sacred Valley near Pisac, to make a highly intricate design from alpaca wool tinted with natural colours; right, a man tends his flock at the collective, feeding a vicuña with two long-haired Suri alpacas in the background.

Photos and text by Laura Stark

http://laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com

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The Urubamba River, which eventually becomes the mighty Amazon as it flows from the Andes to the jungle, snakes its way through the fertile Sacred Valley lined with ancient stone canal systems, surrounded by thousand year old farming terraces stretching up impossibly steep hillsides, many still in production with working irrigation systems and aqueducts. This is where hundreds of varieties of potato and tubers were first domesticated, and is still the heart of Quechua culture today.

Photo and text by Laura Stark

http://laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com

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No journey to Peru would be complete without visiting Cusco, capital of the Inca Empire and Quechua culture. Cusco is also the gateway to the Sacred Valley and the Andes, the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu.

Photos and text by Laura Stark

http://laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com

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PISCO SOUR

You can’t go anywhere in the Andes without being offered one of two drinks, Coca tea or Peru’s National Cocktail, the Pisco Sour.

Coca is a sacred plant in the Andes, and in its natural form, (not the refined white stuff), the leaves are either chewed, or infused in hot water to make a pleasant, grassy “green” tea to help ward off the effects of altitude sickness or “soroche”. As would be expected, it is also a mild stimulant and gives you a little lift, as well as taking the edge off your hunger.

A different kind of lift is the delicate (yet deceptively strong) cocktail that has become Peru’s national drink, the Pisco Sour. Invented in a Lima cocktail bar in the 1920’s, its similarity to the Margarita comes from the taste of the tart lime juice, but this is very much its own drink, with its signature egg white foam and three drops of bitters, and is quickly becoming as famous as its Mexican counterpart in bars from LA to London.

Ingredients:

3 parts Pisco (South American grape brandy) 1 part syrup de gomme 1 part key lime juice 1 egg white Angostura bitters (3 drops) Ice cubes

Combine the Pisco, lime juice, sugar syrup, and egg white in a cocktail shaker.

Add ice and shake vigorously.

Strain into an old-fashioned glass, then add three drops of Angostura bitters on top of the foam to finish.

Serve and drink immediately.

-Laura Stark

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It is probably the most epic journey ever undertaken just to prove a point.

Kon-Tiki explorer was partly right – Polynesians had South American roots - Telegraph

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Thor Heyerdahl believed that South American people, using boats similar to those used by the Uros people of Lake Titicaca, could have sailed across the ocean currents of the Pacific, from Peru to Polynesia, to inhabit Easter Island. He thought that the mysterious Moai statues found there resembled the pre-Inca statues found near Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia today. Many disagreed with his theory and many more thought Heyerdahl was mad, but new genetic evidence showing unmistakable Native American DNA in the population of Easter Island, could prove that there was, in fact, a migration of indigenous people from South America, who mixed with the original Polynesian inhabitants before the catastrophic changes in the ecosystem that caused the population to plummet.

-Laura Stark

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Uros women and children row themselves to school islands, shop islands, and even toilet islands, however, wooden boats are now replacing many traditional reed ones. Here an Uros lady latches on to the back of a moving double reed boat to take a break from rowing.

Photos and text by Laura Stark

http://laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com

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Traditional reed boat of an Uros Islander on Lake Titicaca.

Photo by Laura Stark

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The Aymara-speaking Uros islanders of Lake Titicaca.

Photos by Laura Stark

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Lake Titicaca

Last night’s “soroche” was finally cured by several cups of coca tea and 20 minutes of pure O2 from a giant oxygen tank, a welcome fixture in most hotels at this altitude in Peru. So, thankfully, today’s most “breathtaking” moment was simply the unbelievable sight of the sun-drenched Uros islands coming into view from our boat on this brisk morning on shimmering Lake Titicaca.

These artificial, floating reed islands are inhabited by Aymara-speaking people who for centuries have lived an autonomous and independent existence on the highest navigable lake in the world. The lake’s abundant Tortora reeds have a floating root system, which is gathered and bound together, then anchored to the shallowest parts of the lake to make the artificial islands. Fresh, green reeds are then layered up to 6 feet thick to make the soft, squishy ground, then the same reeds are used to make their houses, floors, seating, beds, and most importantly, their boats. The white part of the reed is even a useful and extremely healthy food. Peeled like a banana, and almost as sweet, like a fibrous cucumber, its eaten throughout the day as a snack, and is full of vitamins, calcium and iodine.

These artificial islands last for decades as long as a fresh layer of Tortora reed is added to the top of the rotting ones every few months, and are so stable and sturdy, they can even grow some basic crops, have a fish farm full of trout, or even keep a few alpaca, sheep or a cow. But, conveniently, the islands can also be moved, towed, or split, when needed.

This isolated and very self-sufficient community settled among the reeds of Lake Titicaca long before the Inca arrived in the 15th century, or the Spanish in the 16th, and their way of life on the water has changed little over time. But, today, out of necessity, the Uros islanders are slowly having to adapt to the outside world and modern life, while still holding on to their traditions.

Each island takes its turn to welcome the tourists who arrive daily by boat, providing the much needed extra income that helps Uros families send their children to school, or to buy supplies only found on the mainland in the markets of Puno or Juliaca, like metal tools to cut the reeds, and nylon rope, which has now replaced altiplano grass to anchor the islands, or more recently, lightbulbs, powered by small solar panels which take advantage of the intense high altitude sun by day, to give a few extra hours of light at night, when temperatures plummet below freezing.

The women say this will help them make even more souvenirs for the boatloads of tourists who buy their embroidery, usually made by day sitting barefoot on the soft reeds in the glaring sun in their bright wool skirts and brown bowler hats, coquettishly worn over long, shiny, black braids bound by rainbow coloured pom-poms—souvenirs now made through night by the light of a single lightbulb, beneath a vast blanket of stars, in a reed house, on a reed island, on a lake at 14,000 feet.

-Laura Stark

See more of Stark’s travel photography at:

http://www.laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com

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The Andean Explorer travels between Cusco, near Machu Picchu, and Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, stopping briefly at the highest point on the Altiplano, at more than 14,000 ft.

Photos by Laura Stark

http://laurastarkphotography.tumblr.com