But today was a bit different. Today we took the bus to Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Judith had originally tried to book a train, but it doesn't run on Thursday, the day that we need to go. The only other comfortable way to get to Puno from Cuzco (Puno doesn't have an airport) is via luxury bus with panoramic windows. Apparently they also have oxygen on board for those that are affected by the altitude sickness. We were assigned the seats behind the driver and get a ringside view. Besides the driver, there is a tour guide and a steward who passes out drinks. The bus stops at various historical Inca sites along they way; you'd think this would be alright.
It would have been much better without the other 38 or so other passengers. You're herded around because you are part of a large group. In and out of the bus several times, throughout the historical sites, chow lines for the buffet lunch and the worst, because I'm female, are the bathroom lines. Meeting times to get back to the bus have to be reiterated. There's no option if you want to linger a little more at a site or finish up sooner and leave earlier. And the fact that there are several buses making the same journey makes it worse because everyone is being herded. As we get underway, the tour guide gave an introductory message about all of us being one family, to be prompt, etc. I know these are necessary rules for smooth bus travel, but they're so common sense. Is the 20 minute lecture necessary? Unfortunately, yes.
The reality is that all the other passengers are nice enough; I just don't want to be part of a herd that large group travel entails.
As the tour guide talks about rules, the driver pulls over near a street bakery stand and the vendor comes over with a large round loaf of bread about a foot in diameter and two inches thick. It's a loaf of Pan Chuta, a sweet bread that is made for sharing with family and friends. The tour guide talks about the bread and then it's shared among the passengers. I get to tuck in first and break off a small piece. It's a bit dry.
Our first stop was at Andahuaylillas. We disembarked to view Iglesia (Church) de San Pedro, built on the ruins of an ancient Inca Temple in the 17th century. The exterior is nondescript; it's the interior that is impressive. No pictures of the interior were permitted. The church contained a number of lavish decorations and paintings from a famous painting school (well, famous to scholars of Peruvian religious art) and a beautiful and intricate geometric design painted on the high ceiling. It ostentatiousness of the interior didn't seem to match the locals that we saw in the square in terms of affordability. Apparently this church is known as the "Sistine Chapel" of America, but one of the tourists in our group openly scoffed at any comparison to the real one. I also think the comparison to the Sistine Chapel is an overstatement, but at least I wasn't rude.
The next stop was Raqchi, the site of a substantial Inca ruin, Templo de Viracocha. The road to the site is a packed dirt road over top a not so wide Inca terrace and I was truly amazed when our bus and an oncoming bus managed to slip past each other on this narrow roadway. The temple was of course destroyed by the Spaniards, but you can make out its grandeur from the remaining ruins. It was one of the holiest shrines in the Inca empire. The temple itself had twenty two columns supporting the largest roof known in the Inca empire. It's under restoration and preservation; the roof structures you see in the pictures have only been added to protect the ruins.
Here's an interpretation of what it looked like:
It's a large site with rocks everywhere. Some of the rocks are neatly stacked in large blocks, others still lie scattered throughout the site. There would have been thousands living here given the enormity of the site. Or maybe it provided a temporary place to house people who would come to worship. There are many house foundations on site and even more impressive are the 156 or so round food storage buildings that provided a stable food source during times of poor harvests or during the dry season. There are many many terraces in various states of ruin.
Some of the food storage buildings:
We walked the site trying to grasp the site size and the enormity of the number of buildings. It's such a large site, with so much more work to be done. Restoration is happening, but where would you start?
The next stop was for lunch at the Pascana restaurant in Sicuani. It's a buffet meal. The fact that I think the highlight was Judith feeding the baby llama some bananas says a lot about the buffet. We did get the chance to sit and chat with a nice couple from Puerto Rico. There was entertainment: a duo playing a Peruvian pan pipe/flute and guitar. Their repertoire was mostly Beatles instrumentals.
The buffet restaurant:
The baby llama:
One of the musicians:
I thought we lingered too long at the restaurant but didn't spend enough time at the Inca Ruins...
We got out of the bus at Abra La Raya. Here we could see glacier capped mountains from the Andes range. But it was also the highest elevation of the route and the highest I've ever been - 14,200 feet.
The next and final stop was Pukara. This stop was to go to a museum to see archeological artifacts from a civilization near Lake Titicaca that lived there around 500 BC. The artifacts we saw were all carved stone pieces which are well before Inca times. Unfortunately the pieces are poorly displayed in a couple of small rooms and there isn't enough information about them.
The final leg of the trip was a couple of hours. We got into Puno around 5:00 and were whisked to our hotel, another Casa Andina Private Collection. It's nice enough and has the same look and feel as all the others. Better than Cuzco, but not as nice as Lima and Sacred Valley.
Lake Titicaca tour tomorrow!
That baby llama...adorable!!!!!!
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