Blogs from Raqchi, Cusco, Peru, South America

It was time to leave Cuzco, (Days 13 and 14 were pretty lazy, so nothing to write about) so I did some research and found the Inka Express, which for $50 took you from Cuzco to Puno (on Lake Titicaca) via VIP bus seats and with various cultural stops along the way. It was hard to find their office and they did not respond to my email immediately. So, I asked my hostel to set it up and somehow I got snaked away and put with another company, Wonder Peru Expedition. I didn't realize it until the next day, Day 15, and the confusion I had felt when Inka Express finally returned my email but said I was not in their system was solved. Oh well. Their bus, and thus group, was smaller so the ride ... read more

As it is my last week here in Peru, I had a few days off to visit Lake Titicaca. Luckily one of the other volunteers also fancied it, so we set off together. To get from Cusco to Puno, the city on the edge of the peruvian side of the lake, it is a 7 or 8 hour bus ride. My travel companion and I decided to travel in style and to take a tourist bus which although took a few hours longer would also stop along the way to show us some sights and to break the journey up. We set off from Cusco at about 7am and began the journey. The first stop not long after, was Andahuaylillas where we found a small village with a very quaint courtyard in front of a pretty ... read more

Up at the crack of dawn again this morning, I was showered, dressed and packed ready for a hearty breakfast. I had a ten hour coach trip in front of me that would take me further up the shores of Lake Titicaca and on to Cusco. I had had a craving for eggs for the last couple of days, and I wasn't going to be let down by the hostel again this morning. With an appetite like the seven nation army, I went into the hostels tiny kitchen and fried myself the eggs I'd bought last night. The few backpackers that were up at the same time as me looked on as I sipped my coca leaf tea, with a look on their faces as if to say 'How come he's got eggs?'. After breakfast, I ... read more

Fresh off the back of El Misti we arrived in the tiny village of Raqchi for an unexpected homestay. Pauline and I were greeted by our Peruvian family and whisked of through some tiny back streets by Emily the 7 year old little girl of the family. Obviously more at home with running down dark alleys dodging puddles that would consume a small elephant and equally large piles of fresh llama s%&t, Emily disappeared round corner after corner with us 2 bumbling along quite some distance behind her. Eventually after nearly klling myself almost falling down some extremely dark stone steps we arrived at their house. We were shown to our room and then Emily dissapeared out into the darkness. Our room was very nice, and while i´m not sure that it hadn´t been specially created ... read more

We drove from Cusco, arriving at dusk. We very quickly did a tour of the ruins (Wiraqocha Temple) that are there. This is a unique temple because the base of the walls were stone but the upper sections were made of adobes(sun-dried mud-bricks). We did a home stay in Raqchi that night. A bunch little ladies in traditional dress accepted a couple of us each into their homes. Our host was called Maria and she was probably the oldest one there. She lives above the main road and we had to trek all the way to the road, along the road and up a hill to her place. She had a separate room for us and there was a loo in an out building. All was made of mud bricks like the rest of the ... read more