Day 13: 13/7/12
Got the bus to Cusco which left at 7am. These people really don't know how to sleep in! There are little stalls of food on the streets and lots of people seem I eat their breakfast there- always groups of people around in any town we've been in. No breakast rolls in the stalls though- fruit, juices, sandwiches, eggs.
The countryside around puno is different to that in Arequipa and colca. Still lots of hills, but there isn't much stone. There are no stone walls and the houses are all brown- most seem to be made from mud and clay. Some near the town were red brick. Lots of stacks of hay around though!
We got a tour bus to Cusco rather than a direct bus so we get to stop off along the way. The first village we stopped off in was Pucara. The Pucara are a group of people who have existed since 400BC. We saw mummies of human sacrifices from back then- this time they were adults though, not like the children the incas sacrificed. There were pyramids here that they held their sacrifices but they are mostly covered by a big church built by the Spanish. I think there are archaeologists looking at the pyramids. These people make a lot of ceramics, particularly ceramic bulls which you could see on top of some of the houses. They have vicunas well which they were hand-feeding in front of us. There was a market in the square aswell- selling lots of nuts, plastics and pots!
Later we got off at the highest point on this route (4300m) and got some cool photos of the mountains. We were only five minutes there. Everywhere we stop though there are locals trying to sell scarves and jumpers and things. They even charge ya to go to the toilet.
We stopped for lunch then in a lovely restaurant. Think the village was killed Siquani- it's so hard to know what they ate saying in those Spanish words. Had a lovely mince casserole thing- probably wasn't beef though, I'm sure it was a bit of an alpaca or something!
Back on the bus we came upon a protest and had to wait for them to pass. Turns out they were teachers looking for more money from the government- fair play to them!!
The next stop was the ruins of an inca temple. It was in a place called Raqchi and it was the temple of Wiracocha. Raqchi was an administrative centre for the incas. The empire they had through Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina had a trail that was over 25000km long. They had towns like this along the route so they could trade food, certain crops could only be grown in certain places. For this reason there were little round stone huts that were used for storage of the crops they were trading. The royals of the Incas lived here and there were 12 houses which were bigger than most of the houses we've seen here! The temple was for Wiracocha who was the supreme God. The reason it was in this place had something to do with astrology, but not sure what!! It's hard to understand what they are saying sometimes in broken English/Spanish! The temple looked cool though!
The last stop was a church called St Peters in a little village Andahuaylillas. We couldn't take photos which was a pity because it was gorgeous! It was built by the Spanish of course and on the ruins of an Inca temple. There were mummies found there too. There were frescos on the wall, the colours of which had been made with plants. The frescos covered most of the church, ceilings and all. There were other paintings also. There was 24carat gold everywhere an the tabernacle was made of pure silver. They were in the process of restoring the church and the paintings and frescos. We could see them dabbing on tiny bits of paint!
Got to cusco after 10 hours in total. The time flew though with all the stops. We were both reading books aswell so happy out! The hostel is really central so we were delighted with that cos the town is gorgeous- little squares everywhere, one nicer than the next with cathedrals and fancy buildings! We wandered around for a while admiring the sights.
There was a bit of confusion about our reservation but we got a 10bed dorm anyway which is what we had booked. Seems to be a very sociable hostel with couches and seats in a main courtyard and a bar behind it!