Once again it was an early start to the day, we needed to get a taxi to the bus terminal for 6:30am for our Inca Express Tour from Puno to Cusco. Puno's bus terminal is one of the most confusing we have ever been in. After we finally found the gate for the bus, we weren't allowed through until we had bought our departure tax tickets. Maria left David with the bags and went of searching for the ticket booth under the stairs, except there were two sets of stairs. Maria eventually found the right place, bought the tickets and we were on the bus.

It was a very nice bus too with big comfortable seats, refreshments and a guide, Shelma, who would talk us through our journey to Cusco and the 6 stops that we would make on the way.

The bus left promptly at 7am and made it's way out of the city slowly, climbing into the surrounding hills which gave us great views of Lake Titicaca and Puno. Puno seemed to blend into Juliaca, a really busy market town with lots of indigenous people in traditional dress going about their daily lives.

It took 1 hour and 40 minutes, which was the longest time spent on the bus between stops all day, to reach our first stop in Pukara for Museo Alcra. We were quickly guided to the small museum which holds some remains from the pre-Inka culture. They had some famous Pukara toritos, statues that were placed on the roofs of houses for protection. They were originally llamas but were changed to bulls after the Spanish arrived. Next door to the museum was a cathedral although there were apparantly better churches later in the day.

Our next stop was at the highest altitude we would reach all day at La Raya which is 4335m above sea level, 535m higher than Puno and 935m higher than Cusco. We had nice views to mountains and glacier.

We arrived in the village of Sicuani for a buffet lunch and we seemed to be a bit early. It was only 11:30am and they were still preparing the food. By the time we had our soup however all the main courses were ready. The food was ok but not as good as the restaurants we went to with the Colca Canyon tour. A local band were playing traditional music while we ate so that made a nice change. After lunch, we bought some warmer gloves for next to nothing from a stall outside - $7 for two pairs of alpaca gloves, bargain!

Continuing along the road toward Cusco, the next stop was at Raqchi, an Inka archeological site. The most prominent structure is the Temple of Wiracocha, an enormous rectangular two-story roofed structure that measures 92 metres (302 ft) by 25.5 metres (84 ft). Prior to its destruction by the Spaniards, the temple had what is believed to be the largest single roof in the Incan Empire, having its peak at the central wall, then stretching over the columns and some 25 metres (82 ft) beyond on each side. The huge proportions of the temple, and its prominence on the site explain why the whole complex is also sometimes referred to as the Temple of Wiracocha. Adjoining the temple to the north are twelve living quarters which would have housed both priests and local administrators. The living area is divided into separate squared lots the largest of which is roughly 4x6m. All have niches in their walls which might have been used for storage, though some of the niches have cover posts, suggesting they may have held sacred objects. To the eastern side of the temple are 152 round qullqas (or storehouses) in parallel lines, each measuring some 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter. These storehouses were used to hold grains, such as corn and quinoa, that would have been used for ceremonial purposes as well as pottery, woven cloth and military equipment. The storehouses are also unique as unlike other structures throughout the empire they are not square cornered. The reason for this is unknown. The entire site had a protective wall built around for defense and people from Titicaca and Cusco would meet there and exchange goods and pay taxes for Inkas.

A little further along the road was the small village of Huaro which had a beautiful Jesuit church. Throughout the church it was easy to spot the Inka duality like gold and silver, the moon and sun, hell and heaven, incorporated into the elaboarate wall paintings.

The nearby village of Andahuaylillas had perhaps a more amazing ornate church than in Huaro. It was orginally a Jesuit church which moved into the hands of Dominicans who covered wall paintings with canvases. Ownership has since returned to Jesuits after Peru got its independence in 1820s. Next door to the church was a small museum with deformed skulls, a pre-Inka practise to visably show difference in class.

As we neared Cusco the landscape began to change more towards mountains and valley, all very picturesque. We passed an Inka gateway but it seemed to just be in the middle of nowhere.

We arrived in Cusco around 5pm and were surprised to find that we weren't at a bus terminal but a private office in a normal street. The downside to this was that there were no taxis. Fortunately we managed to share a pre-booked taxi with a Mexican couple although we paid way over the odds for it. After dropping the Mexicans off, we drove through the old town and past Plaza de Armas to our hostel. Hatun Quilla hostel was a 75 metre walk down through long interior walkway/courtyard which felt a bit odd on this first trip. Inside was surprisingly nice though and we had room on two floors, like a finnish cabin, downstairs seating area and bathroom, upstairs bed and wardrobe with roof window.

After dropping our bags, we took a walk in search for some dinner. We ended up in an Australian bar, Los Perros, which was not Australian at all, all it had was tattered and faded Ozzie flag hanging limply by the door. The food was not that great either, it won't be getting any recomendations.

On the way back to our hostel we walked through Plaza de Armas, the cathedral, church and fountain that were all nicely lit up.

Back in the hostel, David tried the internet but couldn't get a connection. The lady at reception advised that tablets normally can't connect, only phones and laptops. This could be a problem requiring us to change accomodation early...