Puno to Cusco, Peru

We left Puno on May 20th and drove to Cusco. As we were leaving Puno we had a great view of the city with the mountains and Lake Titikaka in the background:

We learned something very interesting about the houses in the area around Puno. Many houses are unfinished, where there is a completed main level with a ceiling, but the second level is incomplete, with metal bars and only the beginnings of the wall structure. We learned that many families purposely do not complete their houses because while a house is still being built the family who owns it does not have to pay taxes. So many houses will forever remain incomplete so that families can avoid paying taxes.

Another thing I learned was how prevalent tuk-tuks are in this area. We had taken a couple tuk-tuks (3-wheeled taxis, very similar to the ones in Thailand and in other parts of Southeast Asia) during this trip, but in area around Puno I noticed them everywhere!

We stopped in the small town of Pucara to explore it and to see the church and houses. The town is beautifully set just beside the mountains.

Walking down the little streets you can see that many of the houses were built by hand:

The drive was through the mountains and it was just beautiful. I spent the majority of the time on the bus staring out the window admiring the beauty of the area. We made a couple of stops along the way to admire the scenery:

And at almost every stop there were lots of vendors selling Peruvian souvenirs like scarves, sweaters, hats, etc.

I also got a chance to meet a local Peruvian woman and her pets:

Driving along the highway we could see a number of local houses, and could see that they were almost all made by laying bricks by hand, and with different types of roofs.

We visited Raqchi, which is an Inca archaeological site, and the home of the Temple of Wiraqocha, which was a very large two-storey rectangular structure, and is believed to be the largest single roof in the Incan Empire. It is also the only remaining two-storey Inca wall. Unfortunately the temple was destroyed by the Spanish, and only the central wall remains:

We also explored the areas surrounding the temple which included living areas and storage areas. We saw a lot of locals walking around the area of the ruins.

After a long day of driving and sight-seeing we finally arrived in the city of Cusco late that afternoon. Unfortunately that evening was the first time I had started to feel the effects of the high altitude! Cusco is at an altitude of 3,400 metres, which is lower than our previous days in Puno, but still pretty high. The altitude caused my head to start hurting really badly, and my nose started bleeding. I couldn’t get my nose to stop bleeding, so I imposed a no-photo policy in my hotel room and walked around with Kleenex shoved up my nostrils until the bleeding subsided. Luckily those were the only effect of altitude I experienced, and I was feeling fine by morning.