Road Trip! Cusco to Puno

Tired from my night of the town the night before, I was mildly checked-out for the 9 hour tour bus ride Mom and I took from Cusco to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. From this point forward in our trip, I left most of the picture-taking to my mom, which has resulted in me not having photos of some of our key moments along the way. However, I will do my best to tell the stories of our travels with what I have.

Our first stop was at a small but famous church about an hour outside of Cusco. It is known locally as the Sistine Chapel of Peru for its intricate artwork and altar. It was pretty phenomenal inside, although nothing could beat the cathedral we visited in the Plaza de Armas in Cusco, in my opinion. However, it did have an elaborately carved wooden pulpit, multiple paintings, and an altar and other details covered in gold.

Peru's Sistine Chapel.

Next we stopped at another site of some Inca ruins, called Raqchi. The site was a worship center for the Inca god Wiracocha. The most stunning remains of the site are some adobe walls that supported an entire temple. The surrounding site is filled with Inca rock walls and more adobe structures that were used as houses, and some round buildings that were store houses for food. This site was incredibly beautiful, surrounded by farm land, pasture land, a stream and irrigation channels, and hills topped with more Inca walls. The rock the Inca used in this area for their foundations was volvanic basalt. Please note: the funny little cap roofs of tile were constructed by the locals to protect the adobe walls from the weather.

Remains of the Wiracocha temple.

Mom and some Inca walls.


The storehouses.




Farmland.
An Inca water system.
Sheep!!!
The cute little church in Raqchi.
Next, our tour took us to the town of Sicuani for lunch, where the highlight was a baby alpaca that I got to pet! It was less than a month old and so, sooooo cute. It was white and had bright blue eyes and the softest wool. I prettymuch wanted a baby alpaca of my very own after chasing it around the yard for awhile. We ate a delicious buffet lunch where we sampled different Peruvian dishes and listened to some folkloric music. Then, we hopped back in the bus and made another quick stop and a pass that was the highest point of our adventure.

The highest point of our trip.
We made one more stop in the town of Pukara, the site of some pre-Colombian ruins that we did not visit. We did visit, however, an interesting little museum there that had some pre-Colombian statues and rock carvings. After a few more hours on the bus, we pulled into Puno and walked to our hostel, which ended up being an awesome little bed and breakfast called Kusillo's Posada. Mom was having a hard time with the altitude, so I ran out and brought back some dinner. We spent the night resting so we would be ready to explore Puno the next day.