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Published: March 24th 2007
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Puno to Cosco 26/03/07
Andres the chap at the hostel in Puno arranged my ticket for Cosco.I was to travel on a 1st class ticket in the latest coach design,it also included in the price a tour of several ancient Incas sights on route to Cosco. It was to be a long haul journey 9 hours in total. I thought at least I´ll have the chance to talk to some fellow travellers and swop notes and maybe get an idea about accomodation in Cosco.I hadn´t booked anything in advance,had a list of places to try off the Internet,Lonely Planet not that helpful
Arrived at the bus station at 9-00am to find a 38 seater coach ,reclining seats and a toilet on board, however there was only 4 other travellers for the trip ,would you believe it all bloody French and that was it !We had a guide included for the trip but he spoke mainly French and Spanish so it was to be interesting.Oh well ce la vie .
As we climbed out of Puno up onto the altiplano you looked down onto Puno and Lake Titicaca and in the distance the high Andes.1-1/2 hours later we made
our first stop to visit a small museum of Incas artifacts that had been found in the village .The village was dominated by a massive rock that was under archeological investigation.An hour later we were on our way climbing higher and higher me feeling the altitude ,by now the snow covered peaks of the Andes came into view,20 mins later at 4600 metres we reached the boundary between the district of Puno and Cosco.Here we stopped as always inundated by traders trying to sell thier wares, the skyline dominated by a 5200metres snow covered mountain.whilst people were milling around looking at wares a small group of motorcyclists pulled up ,I wandered over and started to chat.They were Americans and English on a 15day jaunt from Lima up to Cosco and on down to Puno ,Capacobana and onto La Paz.
Back on the coach we motored going down thankgoodness to an obscure village where we stopped for lunch.It appeared it was a farm at some stage as there were alpaca and llamas wandering around,an average buffet lunch and we were on our way One final stop at Raqchi where there are extensive ruins of an Incas village.here there was a major
central wall of an Incas temple.one has to be amazed at the incredible architecture and the precision of the builders no mortar is ever used the stones fit perfectly,they had only bronze tools and a rock called hammerite ( comes from meteors and consists of nearly 100% iron nearly as hard as diamond 85% )around the village on the skyline you can observe the protective wall ½ hour later we are on our weary way ,1 hour later we reach Cosco now 17-30pm.as we get off the bus you are swamped immediately by offers of finding accomodation and taxis to the centre of Cosco .I had my list of accomodation so piled into a taxis ,by this time I had aquired a hanger on and lacky ,told the driver to go to my first choice option just off the Plaza Amas(Main Plaza) as we arrived I found out that the hostel was fully booked and as I was leaving guess who walks in the bloody French off the bus !!There´s no justice!! Now the hanger on said she had the best hotel so we trundle off across the Plaza into another hotel ,sure enough there is availabilty,but no way Jose!The
room is internal no natural light ,no windows just like a pokey cell.A similar experience at several other hostels ,by now I am getting fed up at least the lacky is struggling with the luggage.finally I settle on a hostel that just about has a window and some natural light for one night .will look around next day for something better, dismiss the hangeron and lacky ,no commission for them
Decide that I need to eat so go down to the Plaza and explore.
Wherever you are in the world there´s always an Irish pub, sure enough Paddy O´Flaterry´s ,the highest Irish Pub in the world 3800metres.
Inside I get talking to 3 young Canadians on holiday, Jason and Atlin are with the circus and have been joined by Devon for the month.Really was an interesting conversation apart from when we were joined by this yank who insisted on talking about Iraq and how good America was to police the world ,I soon shut him up with a few home truths on how Bush and his cronies had made a right balls up of the whole thing ,on that note he left.
Jason recommended a place to stay in San
Blas .
In all a good night
Phileas
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