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Published: October 31st 2008
Lake Titicaca
Floating IslandsIn the morning we got on our trustworthy, and almost luxurious Cruz del Sur bus to Puno... it is definitely the best bus company in Peru, but also more expensive, and used mostly by gringo tourists.
We got to Puno at about 2pm, and our plan was to do a quick visit to Lake Titicaca and only stay one night in Puno, since we were told there was not much to see in the town itself.
And they were right, Puno is quite a dusty and unattractive large town on the edge of the lake Titicaca, at 3800mt above sea level.
We found a cheap little hotel near the centre with the usual touts at the bus station, and after settling in and a little rest, we went out for a walk around the town. It was a pretty busy place, but Lorena seemed to be suffering from the altitude, and she went back to the hotel for some rest and sleep after lunch.
We went to bed early after arranging a 1 day tour around the lake the next morning.
Our tour bus picked us up at about 7am to go to the docks, and after
a slight confusion of getting on the wrong bus, we eventually made it to the boat on time.
We first visited some of the floating islands, where the Uros live, a tribe that moved to the lake to run away from the Incas and the Spanish later on. The islands were a bit touristy, but very interesting to see the way they make them out of the Totora reeds. They actually make everything out of Totora... Islands, boats, houses, and crafts to sell to the tourists, they even eat the stuff! They don´t actually live in the cute houses, but on some more modern metal versions on the floating islands nearby. But they still seem to live a very traditional life from fishing, hunting, and trading as well as tourism of course.
After this we visited the Island of Taquile, a natural island where Quechua speaking native communities live (The Uros speak Aymara). We walked around the island and had some beautiful lunch outside, all organised by the native people, and we even joined them on the dance they performed for us. It was interesting to see this lovely island, and to see how they have managed to maintain all
Lake Titicaca
3800mt altitude their traditions, even when there is so much tourism and foreign influence around.
We got back to Puno at about 5pm and had some time to spend before we got our night bus to Cusco. After some coffee and dinner and a little walk, we went to the bus station to get our cheap bus to Cusco at about 9pm. This time we decided not to go with Cruz del Sur to save some money, but it seems we tried to save too much. This time there was not a single tourist on the bus, and the journey was really cold, since the windows did not close properly, the bus was just not in a very good condition, and we even got stopped by the police in the middle of the night to search for illegal goods (apparently a lot of people bring contraband from Bolivia to sell in Peru).
CUSCO We arrived in Cusco early in the morning, and after leaving our bags at the Flying Dog Hostel, we went for an early morning walk in town, which meant there was nobody in the streets. We managed to have a look in the cathedral during mass, and see
all the amazing shrines, paintings and woodwork.
We then checked in to the hostel, and after a little rest we went out to the train station, to claim our tickets to Machu Picchu, which we bought over the internet... we were leaving early the next morning (Sunday). We got to San Pedro station, but it was closed, and we had 15 minutes to get to Wanchac station before they closed it too... so we jumped on a taxi and got there just on time, and managed to get our tickets for the next morning.
The rest of the afternoon we spend walking around town, and visited Qoricancha (Golden Plaza), the most important Inca temple in Cusco, and supposedly of the whole Inca Empire. Qoricancha was looted by the Spanish, and then build over the original Inca stone walls. You can still the the mix of Inca and Colonial construction throughout the whole complex.
Later in the afternoon we met up with Marcela and Alejandro, and met their little baby. They are a Colombian-Peruvian couple friends of Monica and Miguel (Arequipa). We ended up visiting them at their place, and talking for a good while, and we even watched the Colombia
vs Paraguay football game for the world cup qualifiers... what a disgrace! (we lost 0-1).
The next morning was our time to go to Machu Picchu, so we had dinner and went to bed early.
MACHU PICCHU We got up very early to catch our 6:50am train from Cusco to Aguascalientes. It was a 4 hour trip, and we had a return ticket at 5:30pm so our day was going to be long and tight. After hearing about the different ways of getting to Machu Picchu, we realised the best way to get there is probably going the night before from Ollantaytambo (a much shorter and cheaper train journey) and staying overnight in Aguascalientes (which means you have a lot more time in Machu Picchu, and enough time to go up to Wayna Picchu if you want).
Either that, or doing one of the many trekking trails for 3 to 4 days, which we decided we were neither fit enough nor well equipped enough to do, and not quite up for the pain and suffering involved.
We got to Aguascalientes just before 11am, and bought the very expensive entrance tickets after having to change some dollars, but it was all
very quick and easy. We then got on to the also very expensive bus journey up the steep hill from Aguascalientes to Machu Picchu (about a 25 minute drive). So we were at the entrance to Machu Picchu at about 12am. By this time we were slightly disheartened by the cost of the whole thing, and the fact that we had wasted half of the day getting there (a small bottle of water was about 4usd, we fortunately had our own).
But getting into the whole complex with such a beautiful sun shining day and seeing such an amazing view quickly changed our mood and we took our time to walk around and enjoy the whole scenery. The weather was just perfect, and there did not seem to be that many people around either. We spend nearly 4 hours walking around, sitting down and relaxing and reading about the place, it was more than enough time to enjoy it all at our own pace.
It is just amazing to see how they built these stone walls with perfect carving and construction in such a remote and difficult place. They definitely chose an incredible place to build this city, with the
Lake Titicaca
Trying to row the Totora boat mountains and snow peaks on top and the river gorge below. The whole complex seems to be divide into temple or royal areas, with the residential and working areas on the other side across the central squares, and the agricultural terraces on one side. The whole place is dominated by the Wayna Picchu peak, which you can also climb if you have an extra 2 to 3 hours.
We got back down to Aguascalientes on the bus after 4pm, just on time to walk around and catch our train back to Cusco. A couple of friends from Cali (Luis Fernando and Diana) who we met at the hostel were also in the train, so we went together for dinner at a nice restaurant nearby.
CUSCO and The Sacred Valley The next morning we wondered around the lovely streets of Cusco, and in the afternoon we got onto a City Tour, which takes you around the Inca ruins nearby. We were with our tour guide Leo, and the Leoncitas... a group of girls from various parts of the world who were together on holiday.
We first visited Saqsaywaman, an amazing fort type construction, made with incredibly huge rocks on a hill
Isla Taquile
Traditional Dance overlooking Cusco. The guides say the rocks were brought from a quarry about 6km away, but I am a bit skeptic about that, especially with regards to the really big ones. They also say that Saqsaywaman represents the head of the Jaguar, which is made up of the rest of the streets and rivers in Cusco. The whole city is meant to be in the shape of a giant Jaguar, and that the Incas did that on purpose... I personally don´t believe a word of that, and I think the archaeologists and the guides make up a lot of things just to make it more interesting.
The other ruins we visited on the City tour were Qenqo, Puka Pukara and Tambomachay, but I can´t really say anything good or bad about them, since I felt the tour was too much of a rush, and even considering Leo´s efforts to give us good information, it was just too rushed and disorganised... I would recommend visiting these places on your own and at your own pace, probably getting a bus to the last one, and walking all the way back, as one friend of ours did.
That night we met up with
our Belgian friend, Eveline, and went for dinner to a nice and inexpensive place, the next morning we were going on our Sacred Valley tour.
We left at about 9am on a large bus... together with the 'Leoncitas' from the day before, but with a different guide, a more military minded Jenny. We first visited Pisac, a lovely little town on the Urubamba Valley. It was market day (Tuesday) so we spend about half an hour walking along the crowded market streets. After that we went to the Pisac ruins, where we had a good 1 hour hike along the steep mountains. The Pisac ruins also looked like quite an important settlement, with impressive rock constructions, hanging cemeteries and incredible agricultural terraces, all set on a beautiful hill above the valley.
After Pisac we stopped at a buffet lunch in the town of Urubamba... this is where I made my big mistake... I ate too much! I could not help myself from a second helping of Ceviche and another extra piece of bread pudding, it was delicious! and I was totally bloated afterwards.
We then went to Ollantaytambo about 30 minutes away on the bus. This was a beautiful town
built mostly over original Inca walls, and an impressive complex of walls and terraces up to the top of the hill, where there were some more incredibly precise huge stone wall constructions. Unfortunately for me, the amount of food in my stomach as well as the altitude and the effort to go up and down the ruins behind our hurrying Jenny, resulted on my stomach turning round and round. I managed not to let it all out on the Inca ruins, but as soon as the bus got going it was all over.
I felt pretty bad for the rest of the day until we got back to our hostel in Cusco. So I missed our visit to Chinchero, which Lorena was very impressed by. It is a small colonial village also built over existing Inca foundations. The church is supposed to be beautiful, with amazing ceiling paintings know to be the Latin American Sistine Chapel.
On Wednesday we decided to stay a further day in Cusco, and we got a bus ticket for the 18 hour journey to Lima. So we stayed in Cusco and enjoyed a relaxing day walking around the lovely little streets, and visiting some of
the museums we had not seen. We even had time to watch the Brasil vs Colombia football match, which we managed not to loose by many goals (0-0) and we even played quite well even though we did not score.
Back in LIMA Our bus journey to Lima on Internacional Palomino was pretty good, we left at 12:30 midday and got to Lima at 8:30 am the next morning, and eventhough we payed extra for the more comfortable seats/beds downstairs, it was still cheaper than the standard Cruz del Sur seats. And we managed to sleep for most of the trip.
We stayed in Lima just relaxing at the hostel and in the Miraflores area, walking around and having some more nice food. The last day we went to the Larcomar shopping centre on the sea front, where the sun was shining and people were out on paragliders. We had our last delicious Ceviche, and at night we made our way to the airport for our flight to Sao Paulo at moidnight.
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Guillermo Cifuentes
non-member comment
Las fotos espectaculares
hola muchachos como siempre esas espectaculares fotos que tratan de mostrar los lugares hermosos que visitan, y como siempre rematando con una gran comida que para nada le gusta a Daniel.... saludos Guille/Erika