From Cusco to Puno

Day 5 of this trip , another early start as we were taking a 7 am bus to Puno. Our dear friend Omar picked us up one last time and dropped us at the bus terminal . At 7 am sharp we were leaving Cusco on the Inkaexpress.

The first stop along the route was at Andahuaylillas were there is a 16th century church that locals consider as the sixtine chapel of the Americas due to the magnificient paints on the walls and roof. Outside the church there were some handicraft street vendor with some ridicously cheap prices, some half of what we paid in Cusco.

Next stop was at Chupecupe, an small village where we had the chance to cross an old Inca bridge made of ropes before attending to a music session by the local chore of children.

Leaving this village our next stop was Raqchi, where we visited an old temple built by the Incas in honour to their god called Wiracocha. More souvenir shopping by my wife.

The fourth stop was for lunch in a village called Marangani, it was close to Noon so considering the early start it was hard to stop people from leaving the bus in a rush. Buffet lunch was Peruvian style but nice, also a local band was playing some folk music, overall a good experience.

After lunch and some time for a nap (or shopping if you ask my wife) we travelled 20 minutes to "La Raya", which at 4,300masl was the highest point along the route. Plenty of photo opportunity with alpacas and snowy peaks and for my wife shopping, shopping and more shopping......

An hour and 20 minutes later we arrived to our last stop before Puno, another small village called Pucara, here we visited the local museum and check the typical souvenir of this area, a little bull called "torito de Pucara", plenty of them on sell.[PHOTO_ID_R=pucara-s-toritos.jpg]

The last leg of the trip took some hour and 40 minutes and passed the much bigger city of Juliaca before arriving in Puno and some impressive vistas of Lake Titicaca.

At 5pm we left the bus terminal and headed to our hotel that with its 10 floor and restaurant was a well deserved place to rest after such a long day. Dinner was with grilled trout an coca tea....

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