Cusco to Puno 30th Nov

Tuesday we took a bus to Puno, a city that has Lake Titicaca on its side. Instead of taking a boring old bus that just drove us there, we decided to get a ‘tour’ bus, one that stopped off at Inca sights and towns along the way- lunch included! The problem was our guide had to speak in both Spanish and Ingles, with a lot of information to translate to us all. He would start to inform the group with the Spanish, let them go and explore, and then gave the English version. And so the time he had finished talking about either the ruins, town or church, he would say- ok, now you have eight minutes to explore the place. Not a lot of time when there was a lot to look at. We were a little disappointed with that, but overall it was a good day and again, the buffet food for lunch was amazing. Let’s look inside the round window-

From Cusco we went to the town of Andahuaylillas (pronounce that one!) The town was very small and had a big central square where the locals had all their wares out to sell. There was a 17th century Jesuit church which was very over-the-top inside. It was originally an Inca temple, but of course the Spanish fuckers took over residency when they invaded and it is now a catholic/Inca bastard church. It was filed with amazing murals over the walls painted by a local Cuscanian painter who used all natural dyes from plants, horse piss (this is Peter’s truth); the ceiling and alters adorned in gold. We understood our respectful duty not to take photos inside the places of worship, but I would’ve loved to have photo evidence of the big mural that covered the walls either side if the exit/entrance/salida. The moral was a portrait of two scenes, one depicting the path to hell and the road sinners will take. This highway to hell was impressive and beautiful, covered with flowers and presumably an easy path to take. The picturesque moral tale showed these people dressed lavishly as they walk down a ‘trepid’ moral path: be warned the road hell is a comfortable one with one scary looking mother fucker at the end of the line bathed in fire. You’ve been warned: may not your life be one of convenience and decadence. Moreover, that is on the other side of the door, a continuation of this moral mural, a sum of people were seen with a jovial man seated at the head of a grand table, his friends all eating and drinking. This contrasting scene demonstrates the importance of sharing worldly goods and being charitable….Similarly to its sister mural that shows a road that is smaller is size and is somewhat harder to take The same character who is seen on the adjacent wall is taking a similar journey. Awesomely in this mural he was naked, signifying that it makes no difference in heaven what you had, owned on earth, everybody is the same after death has taken you mortal soul. There were lines which went from the man’s back straight to the eyes of the devil on the other mural, showing that evil and its temptation always has its eye on ‘you! All in all it wasn’t just a mural on the wall, it was quite something to behold. The funny thing was, it was the Spanish that put the mural up there, the same mother fuckers that usurped gold from the Incas and destroying their cities. Perhaps their morals were just painted on.

From this dubious place we went to the town of Raqchi. This is a town set around an old Inca sight, which holds the temple of Viracocha. All that is left of it is the main beam which would have held its roof. Its the highest Incan building of their civilisation that is still standing. It was pretty big. The old town around it was impressive too, some of the old storage houses were still in tact and we were shown where the remains of the village was and how perfect the rows of houses were in line with each other and how the Inca’s buildings all were in alignment with the sun or their god Sol.

We then stopped off at a little place which the name of we can’t remember. It wasn’t even a town, just a shop really, that had llamas and alpacas and guinea pigs and even a playful puppy ‘the Hairy Dragon’. This place had stalls where you could buy jewellery and clothes as per. I don’t know if we will ever get used to the fact that everything we do and everywhere we go is an exercise for the locals to try and sell us stuff? They’re like fuckin’ ninjas at the game. Pay attention and you’ll defiantly see an this immerging pattern over the next few days worth of blog.

Next off the bus took us over the Abra la Raya pass, which is 4319 metres above sea level, where we saw beautiful snow capped mountains and ranges either side of it. We stopped for a photo opportunity and a look at all the stalls (surprise, surprise) witch were a wash of similar if not the same wares as the 22 days before. Even the beautiful terrain of the Atitlan (flat planes) didn‘t make them look exotic enough to buy.

Amazingly when you’re on this plateau you are deprived of seeing trees or crops, your only drawn towards big open planes with mountains surrounding them. Our guide was told us that the communities that do live out on the planes struggle a lot- they have no electricity and in winter a lot of children die from the cold. The government has incentives in place to try and collect as much clothing and blankets from other towns and cities to give to these communities before the winters to try and help. it’s a very harsh way of living but the only ay they know. Here’s a nugget of information: due to the lack of wood they must make their fires from cow shit.

We stopped at the town of Pucara, the birthplace of the ceramic bulls. Most houses that we had seen in Peru (mainly in the smaller towns) had a couple of these bulls on the roof with a cross between them. The bulls are to bring prosperity and luck into the home, while the cross is for the catholic aspect and to have God’s love fountain over there homes. There was also a museum that held a lot of Incan treasure and statues, even one that was supposed to be a frog but looked a bit like ET. Our guide reckons that Steven Speilberg must of seen it before coming up with the character of the movie. Trust us, some of these guides are full of shite.
E.Tville was out last sight before making it to Puno. We were picked up by our local travel agent, shown to our hotel, and booked our onward travels. We went out for a bite to eat and just happened to walk past Louise and Liz on the street! So we had dinner together and talked about where we would next meet up, in Bolivia.

written by

Pete+Rochelle on December 7, 2010 from Puno, Peru

from the travel blog: Round the world!!!

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