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Er.....donde es la luguna??
In search of Laguna..walking down the VERY long road A German girl called Lena randomly popped over to the school to ask me if I would be interested in going to the Laguna nearby Cusco after my classes, which I of course agreed to. Firstly let me explain, the reason why I'm running around like a blue arse fly and doing many tours in such a short time is because here in Cusco you can purchase a "Boleta Touristico" for 70 Soles which is brilliant value for money and gets you access into 17 different sites in and around the Cusco area, ranging from Museums to Ruin sites. The only catch is - it's valid for 10 days from day of purchase...
Ok so I met Lena at noon and we walked over to the Terminal which was again, where the locals got on, with both of us on board we found a seat and sat there watching school kids get on, obviously peak hour, the bus was packed and very hot inside too! anyway for a mere 1/soles 50/centimos thats under US$1 was an hours trip into the wilderness, South of Cusco through the small town of Oropesa which is known for it's bakers and Cuyerias (guinea pig
Hmmmm...landscape looking much greener...
I guess it didnt take rocket science to tell us we were on the right track! specialists (food). We did however, get a little confused as to where we actually had to get off, it all became clear when an older lady sat next to Lena kept telling us to get off and get a cab, Lena was getting increasingly frustrated as she was trying to explain we were staying on the bus until the end (as her trusty guide book had told her)...however, older lady who had now become panicky consulted older man who was sat next to me, so there we had both peeps telling us this and that, talking at the same time, we kinda grasped what they were trying to tell us, pointing outside the window and that WE HAD to get off. Just as this was happening, we saw what we thought look like a laguna, looked at eachother and realised yes perhaps we should to get off. So shouting BAJA (stop) - with not much response from the bus driver, we just waited till we got to the next stop. So off the bus we got and there was absolutely no one around, it was like a ghost town.
Fortunately we saw a lady sat outside her house and
Laguna
At this point it had started to rain and it got a little windy...brrrr...however, it was a very beautiful sight! asked her where the Laguna was, she pointed straight so we just carried on walking. Let me also add, because I had no notice to change, I was not exactly dressed for the occasion, however, had my UGG's on, and cap which were the main essentials to keep me warm,,, and a skirt - you could say i didn't blend in well...well neither did Lena as she has red hair and porcelin skin, she was definately a tourist attraction to the locals....anyway, we came to a bus stop where there were a group of men and asked them also if we were heading in the right direction, just follow the road they said, so we did....an extremely long road..no one in sight...although we saw some amazing mountains, farm land, goats, cows, bulls, even saw a huge humming bird, eculyptus trees and elderberry trees, as well as a little shower of light rain...we didn't see a laguna..so we were discussing perhaps it was dry season...Must of walked for a good 30minutes, and finally there it was. It was well worth the walk! very peaceful, very pretty and getting very cold too!!!
Because we were in such awe and super excited
So thats what Elderberry looks like...
Pretty cool to see this! Elderberry trees were everywhere! that we found the lake, we got a little confused, and somehow lost our way trying to find Pikillacta - an Inca ruin site. We realized we had missed the turning somewhere, thinking it was an obvious road, but we didn't recall seeing it. Anyway, looking at the map we then walked on the main highway with big trucks and cars passing us, then I spotted what looked like a 'tuk tuk' this is a form of motorcycle (just like the ones in Thailand) which has transformed into a taxi type thing..and inside it was a tourist...so my theory was he's heading for the site.....Theory was right, after a while the tuk tuk was coming straight for us, so we stopped him and asked him for directions, turns out he took us there - we were not that far off but to get to the actual site it would've been a good 20 minute walk, thank goodness for the tuk tuk.
Pikillacta 'The Place of the Flea" is a massive site I think they say about 50 hectares and it was built by a culture way back in 800AD called the Huari, before the rise of the Incas. There
Laguna
Very very nice....not sure how we managed to miss it! are geometric terraces which surround certain constructions which could only be entered by ladders so they were raised above the ground. Apparantly this was rare. Turquoise statuettes were also found at the site. You can see in the photos the stone work is much more different to the Incas smooth big stone craftmanship.
The journey back to Cusco was interesting we had some freakish weather - it was hailing!!!! In front of our bus was blinding sun light and behind us it was black - very surreal with the hail. Lena and I looked at the back of the bus and saw a huge rainbow over the mountains - a good omen they say! Have to say it really was another wonderful day!! I'm taking it easy for the next couple of days, giving my legs a well earned rest before journeying to the Colca Canyon for the weekend.....Ciao for now...
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Victor
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Hey
Lovely way to narrate your story. Hope you are enjoying it!! Good luck