Travel to Puno

South America Day 18

 

We were glad to be leaving Cuzco at long last. Our group was back together with the Jungle folk arriving the previous afternoon. We had exhausted the interest value of Cuzco some time ago.
The afternoon before, I'd started to come down with some kind of cold/flu to add to the eye problem and the shoulder problem. I was starting to think South America was going to be the death of me.
On our way out of town we passed by the Monumento a Pachacútec.

It's supposedly a statue of the Inca ruler when the empire was crushed by the Europeans. The reality is that the ruler was probably a woman, but the Catholics decided to bend the truth a little.

The Next Leg.

Shown in blue, you can see the ground we've covered by this point in the trip. We're nearly at the end of the Peru leg of the journey.
The red section is the day bus trip we endured today. 6 hours seemed like nothing at the time, but the bus had uncomfortable seats and dodgy air conditioning. It was far from fun.

 

Nevado Cunurana.

This was the high point (summit) on our 6 hour journey and about half way. By the time were reached it we'd already had enough of the bus. There were some nice snow capped peaks to look at but we really didn't want to get back on the bus.

Puno

 

We arrived in Puno late in the afternoon and were very glad to be off the bus. The only brief highlight for me during the second half was seeing a couple of flocks of flamingos just outside of Juliacca. It was a brief look and being that we were on a public bus, there was no chance of stopping. No doubt we'll see more flamingos when we visit the desert in a few days.

Cuzco - White Water Rafting

South America Day 17

We had booked a white water rafting trip, more out of lack of things to do than anything else. It was kind of fun, but not exactly the most difficult rafting. We didn't even manage to take any photos and the photos taken by the operator never found us.

Cuzco - But what to do?

Out of ideas of things to do in Cuzco - (Day 16)

Another day in Cuzco. We were fast running out of things to do. Kerri got her opportunity to go shopping for trinkets and merchandise. I spent time either following her around security guard style or taking a nap at the hotel.

We went around the corner down a dodgy looking street where we were told of a nice place for dinner. It was a strange Moroccan style place where we had some excellent food (even by western standards). It was so good we went back the next night as well.

Cuzco

South America Day 15

Back in Cuzco and an opportunity to rest for a couple of days. A little over half the group boarded a flight to the jungle which didn't really appeal to us. In hindsight, maybe we should have....
We spent the day doing jobs like washing and buying snack supplies. We eventually decided to go and see the tourist spots around Cuzco.

 

Qoricancha, the Temple of the Sun was our first monument..

I was somewhat underwhelmed by The Temple of the Sun. The one thing that did interest me was that building structure. Qoricancha was originally built by the Incas and when the Spanish arrived, they cut the top off it and added some European architecture. They must have learned that the Incas knew how to stop their buildings being shaken to a pile of rubble and left the lower levels as they were.

  

 

 

It wasn't just Qoricancha that had the split architecture. Most of the older buildings in Cuzco have the 3 deg. rock foundations and ground floor with a European top. The building above is no exception.
That afternoon we also went to the Inca museum. It was OK, but the Spaniards had already melted down anything metal or sold or stole anything else of value. I made the mistake of looking at an exhibit with a light under it. I didn't see it with the main part of my vision, but I still ended up doing damage to my retina. (Edit: 6 months later I still have a sideways crescent dark patch from my right eye just under my normal vision.)
We ended up playing darts in a pub that evening. Sometimes on a long trip you have to have down days every now and then.

Cuzco

South America Day 9

Did I mention an early start? 4.20am! We had to be at the airport early for our flight to Cuzco. I think there are only 2 flights a day and our left at 6.50am meaning that we had to get organised early because of the group factor. The usual stragglers were slow getting off the mark again, obviously needing their beauty sleep (didn't work either ). We still managed to make the flight but breakfast was a tad rushed.

The flight wasn't direct. We touched down & swapped seats in Juliacca near Puno.

The flight from Juliacca to Cuzco gave us a look over the Altiplano with the volcanoes around Arequipa quite prominent. I've labelled a few of them. You can see how flat the Altiplano is which is hard to believe considering it's all well above 3000m above sea level. Most places around the world at that altitude tend to be a cluster of rugged snow capped mountain peaks. In contrast the Altiplano is a flat (relatively flat) dry desert.

This crazy twisted road was about the only other point of interest from the air. I have no idea how this is the easiest route to anywhere but the terrain around Cuzco is pretty rugged.
Eventually we made it to Cuzco in time for a late lunch.

Cuzco

Cuzco's a bit like Arequipa in that the buildings surrounding the main square (Plaza de Armas - for a change) had two levels with shops around the lower level & restaurants at the top. The buildings aren't anywhere as grand as Arequipa. Instead of the vast balconies, Cuzco has little balcony boxes. We took a punt with a pub of sorts that the three in shot (Mike, Nic & Polly) had come to. It turned out to be a fairly good call.

Cuzco's main square isn't as grand as the one in Arequipa, but it has it's charms. There's a Cathedral & a church. Pictured is the Cathedral. I like the bright coloured flower beds. Both the Cathedral & the Church have a real Spanish Gothic look to them.

Here's the Church in the Main square, La Compania. Not much to say about it. Just another church.

As mentioned before, Cuzco has these little timber balcony boxes instead of the vast verandas Arequipa has. It's very quaint.

The plan for the afternoon was to take a short uphill hike to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman, or close enough). We were to start the Lares trek the next day so a couple of hours wander would set us up for the 3 day trial ahead.
Cuzco was once the centre of the Incan empire before the Spaniards came along & trashed the place. The centre of Cuzco was Sacsayhuaman pictured here on the left hand hill above Plaza de Armas. It's a fairly steep climb to the ruins, but short enough not to be a drag. The right hand summit has a status of JC. Another legacy of the Catholic marauders.

On the way up the hill you have to clear the houses of the city via a seemingly endless set of stone steps.

Right at the upper boundary, there's a church, Santa Teresa, with a grand view of Cuzco. This photo is one of 3 I took to get a full panorama. The view from the ruins was even better.
Photographing the church we were standing in front of was pointless because it was shrouded by scaffold & plastic for renovations.

After a short but surprisingly tough climb, we reached the entrance to Sacsayhuaman. As for most tourist spots around the world, there was a ticket booth. We knew the scoop & bought the Tourist Pass that covered us for this & a number of other ruins around Cuzco & Sacred Valley, where we were headed the next day.Notice behind my sexy woman is one of many rock walls in the complex. The individual blocks are huge, but individually crafted to fit to the adjacent ones. Considering how massive the blocks are, the joints are almost air tight! They don't use mortar or fill the gaps with anything. It's shows the talents of the Incan people. The added interest is the fact that the Cuzco area gets regular earthquake visits & these walls are still as tight as they were centuries ago when they were constructed. Mean while, many of the European structures in the city below (including the Church & Cathedral mentioned before) have been destroyed & re-built more than once before.

The Incas were really quite civilized all things considering & their engineering feats are quite impressive. Think about how they managed to put that huge capping stone over the doorway. The Egyptians are renowned for moving big rocks around, but these people had a pretty good handle on it as well.The ruins look like the sands of time haven't been kind to them but the reality is that the Europeans dismantled it block by block & used the parts to build their churches & buildings down in the city below. It's kind of sad, but that's human nature for you.

90% of the South American population are Catholic & it shows. Standing at the high point of Sacsayhuaman, the ever present Christ the Redeemer was again a dominant feature of the landscape. It's lit at night so all the locals down in the city can see their saviour. It's kind of tacky really, but nothing you wouldn't see in Europe.

This view is more like what you'd expect to see at an Inca ruin. The terraces would have been for farming and even housing.

The terraces above are from where the previous shot was taken. It's a bit hard to get perspective, but believe me it's a pretty impressive structure considering the builders didn't have cranes or modern machinery.

Maybe this photo will cast some light on the situation. Check the huge rock to our left.
As you may have guessed, the Sacsayhuaman ruins impressed me. It's one of four within about 5 kms of this one.

The final comment from up on the hill at Sacsayhuaman is the view down to the city below. In the photo above you can see Plaza de Armas below with it's gardens & 2 churches.
We met up with Gemma & Emma from our tour group by chance & eventually headed back down to the hotel. I had started to feel the effects of the dodgy food at lunch the day before. It was the start of a couple of a horror 24 hrs for me & I wasn't alone. When I got back there were a couple of other casualties already hiding in their rooms.To make things worse, my faithful Merrel hiking shoes finally let me down. The toe on one of the boots came away from the sole 36 hrs before we were to hike for 3 days. Our tour guide Roberto took me down to the part of town that he'd told us earlier in the day, not to go to for emergency repairs. I was to go back & pick them up later that evening.