Journey to Lake Titicaca

So what do you do after spending four day's hiking in the Andes? I'll tell you, you go back to your Cusco home and shower. Then you get up the next day in time to make a 7:00 am bus to Puno that will take 9 hours. Why Puno? Well because that is where Lake Titicaca is, and let's face it you can't go to Peru and not see Lake Titicaca.

On our way to Puno we stopped at the small town of Andahuaylillas. Like many of the small towns in Peru this town is known for its Catholic Church. The church here is dubbed the "Cusco's Sistine Chapel." Unfortunately we were not able to take pictures inside the church. One thing I loved about the small town's of Peru were the squares. Every town had a Plaza de Armas and in Andahuaylillas the square had two beautiful trees that shaded their local market.

After leaving Andahuaylillas, we passed through many small towns. One of the towns Urcos is known for making the tiles that are used on the roofs of buildings in Cusco.

Our next stop was Racchi. In Racchi we looked around at some Incan ruins that were very different from other ruins we had seen. Unlike other Incan ruins the Spanish did not destroy this village. This village was destroyed in a war the Incas were having amongst themselves.

This temple was built in honor of the Incan creator Wirakocha. It is said that Wirakocha's son is the Sun, his daughter is Pachamama (Mother Earth), and his other daughter is Mama Quilla (Mother Moon.)

Side note: We learned on our hike to Machu Picchu that before drinking in celebration the Andean people share some with Pachamama by dumping it on the earth.

Inside the Incan city.

There were once over 200 grain storage buildings here. During the war they were all burned and left as nothing more than mounds of rock. In the background you can see a reproduction of how the storage buildings once looked.

After the ruins at Racchi, we continued on to La Raya (The Line). This was the highest point on our Journey to Puno and it separates the Cusco and Puno regions of the country.

From here we continued on through the city of Juliaca. Juliaca was the only place in Peru where I felt very vulnerable and unsafe. If you are ever in Peru do not stop here just keep right on moving.

Juliaca.

After getting out of Juliaca, we finally got to Puno, and Lake Titicaca.