Cusco & Puno

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After the Inca trail it was time to go back to school, which I did not find quite so cool.. To help me along my travels, I decided to do a two week spanish course. It was tough, and I've never been much of a school fan, however towards the end of the course I could converse in basic spanish, and hopefully continued use and practise will improve my spanish.

For the duration of the course I stayed in a sort of homestay, though a few other students also lived in the house. It was a quiet two weeks, where I didn't go out to much, and enjoyed having my own room as opposed to sharing a dorm with 8-10 other people.

I even managed to do some sightseeing in Cusco, sometimes alone, sometimes with the spanish school, sometimes with other students...

Cusco used to be the capital of the Incan Empire, referred to by them as the 'navel of the world'. Much of it was destoyed by the Spanish, however many of the current buildings / cathedrals are built on the foundations of the old inca palaces, and these walls can still be seen. And then there are the crazy markets, where you can buy just about anything for next to nothing, including dried Llama foetuses, should you need one for some reason or another...

Above Cusco, a brisk 30 min walkaway, are more ruins called Sacsayhuaman, a fortress with walls made from huge boulders. Other ruins such as the temple of the sun and temple of the moon are also nearby, which I explored on horseback.

After I had finished my course and passed my written exam, it was time to relax and enjoy the other pleasures of Cusco... the nightlife. Cusco is famous for its nightlife, with backpackers from all over the world passing through whilst on the Gringo Trail.

So after spending 3 weeks in Cusco, it was time to move on, and I chose to take the train to Puno, which is a 10 hour journey through the Andes with spectacular views.

Puno is a largish town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, supposedly the highest navigatable lake in the world. And its a shithole. Nothing much to see, dirty, unattractive, polluted. However, I did have a reason to stop over there: The floating reed islands, known as the Uros. These are inhabitaed man-made islands. Very primitive, but impressive to see. There are about 40 of these islands on Lake Titicaca, and all only accessible by boat. The ones we visited where abou one hour by boat from Puno.

This was my last stop in Peru, my next destination beeing Copacabana in Bolivia....

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