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Day of the dead in Ecuador

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Day of the Dead in Ecuador is known as Día de los difuntos. On November 2nd, All Souls Day is celebrated in Ecuador and over the Andean region, with unique manifestations of religious cultures. Throughout the country people visit the memorial parks to honor their departed. Indigenous communities massively visit cemeteries keeping an old pagan tradition of taking along the favorite food dishes to share with their loved ones by their graves. They eat quietly and slowly in a solemn ceremony, sharing food among the families. Some of them circulate around the cemetery exchanging foods. They give food as a reward for those who pray for their departed. The ancient belief is that the soul visits its relatives during these days and should have plenty of food to be fed and be able to continue further on its journey to the afterlife. The typical food for All Souls Day is "guaguas de pan”, (pronounced wa wa de pan)  accompanied by a beverage called "colada morada". These food...
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Puno We arrived in Puno and got settled in at our Hostel. It was another very basic place. Puno is a small town that doesn't have a lot of tourism. We spent the day wandering a bit in the plaza and visiting the church. There was a festival and a lot of places were closed. That afternoon we took our tour of the floating islands in Lake Titicaca. It was very cold on the lake. We took a boat about 30 minutes out to the islands. They are a series of islands that are grouped together. The tours take turns going to different islands and the people pool their money to support the community. When we arrived we were taken to an area to sit on the reeds and a local spokes person gave us information on their life and the islands. He showed us how they layer the reeds on top of the root blocks to make the island (approx 3 feet thick). We learned that they need refreshing regularly. We learned that traditionally the reeds are edible and combined with fishing this was the main sustenance.  Now...
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