Cuzcoooo!

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After only one day in Puno we decided to move on straight to Cuzco because it was only a few days before we would start our four-day Inca Trail trek through the Andes to Machu Picchu!

Cuzco is by far one of our favourite cities...It is so rich in history and art and is a central site of Peruvian culture. Not only that but it has a buzzing nightlife, great bars and cafes and LOADS of vegetarian places to eat - a massive bonus for us! We ate so well there, frequenting one or two places most days because they offered a daily menu of salad, soup, a main meal and cup of tea all for just over a pound! You really can't beat that!!!

We spent a few days there and visited the city's galleries, museums and archaeological sites, which gave us a brilliant insight into pre-Inca and Inca culture and was a good warm up to the main event - Machu Picchu!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is such a beautiful city....much of the colonial architecture is built on original Inca stonework making it really unusual and completely unique!

The Plaza de Armas is really picturesque, with gorgeous churches, a fountain and loads of lovely colonial architecture.

The Inca Museum was by far one of our favourite places...the artefacts here are just incredible! And so well preserved! Here are some of our favourites....

I had a bit of a morbid fascination with the trepanned skulls....They would bore holes in people's skulls and replace the holes with metal. It was done in cases of injury, but also to denote a higher status in society and some theories suggest to have a closer connection with the gods! Grim!

Inca weapons!

One night we went along to a show of indigenous dancing at a cultural centre in Cuzco. This was awesome as we got to see how people of different indigenous groups danced in their traditional costumes. The compère explained the significance of them all too. It was amazing!!!!!

The next day we decided to try out a city tour to cram in as many of the sites as possible in the short time we had...unfortunately we got lumped with the worst guide of all time, Victor, who could barely speak English and when he did spoke at a speed of 1 word per hour, meaning it took us ages to listen to what he had to say and that we spent hardly any time seeing the actual sites! Victor was definitely competing for the worst tour ever award....

The one we wanted to see the most was Sacsayhuaman...Located a few kilometres out of town, this site is huge and was really important to the Incas...The whole of Cuzco was created to form the shape of a puma and Sacsayhuaman was it's head! The stone work is incredible - some of the stones are MASSIVE and weigh a stupid amount! Unfortunately our stupid guide ran off and left us sat on our own for half an hour, meaning that we hardly got to see any of the site when he returned. BAH! It was still awesome though...

These are the rocks that form the puma's teeth! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! See how the walls go in a zig-zag??? Yeeeaaah???? One theory is that this was a ceremonial site that celebrated lightning....

The biggest insult of the tour was when we drove past one of the sites and the guide said 'Oh there it is!' and that was it!!!!!!!!!! They stamped our (one use only) ticket for that site as well, meaning since we had "seen" it we couldn't go back. We grumbled for the rest of the tour!

Here are a few more pics from the tour.....

This is supposed to be the remains of a statue of a large frog....honest! You can kiiiind of make it out...it's sitting sideways with it's head pointing upwards......

The frog was guarding a cave with an underground alter! So cool!!

That day we also visited the former Temple of the Sun, which before the Spanish conquests had life-sized statues of gods and animals. But of course the Spaniards decided to smash it all to bits and melt all the gold and build a monastery on top of it! It is a beautiful building and inside you can see the original stonework foundations....

Here is a painting of Inca cosmology....The Incas believed that Cuzco was the naval of the world, with all other places radiating from it...This depicts the other places of religious importance in the Inca empire and their relation to Cuzco....

The Floating Islands and Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca

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After returning to Copacabana, we decided to head to Puno, which is on the Peruvian side of Lake Titcaca. It was only a brief stay there so we could see the floating islands, but the trip was memorable. We arrived at a lovely new hostel where we booked a tour for the next morning.

We were picked up bright and early by a bus to take us down to the water to get on a boat for our tour to the Uros Islands and Taquile - another island further out. Our guide turned out to be excellent - as well as being totally bilingual he was very knowledgeable and informative about the area and local culture. The islands themselves were incredible. For thousands of years people have lived on them using the reeds on the lake for almost everything. Their boats, houses, food and the ground they walked on were made of reeds. The islands were made by sticking large squares of earth with the the roots of the reeds on together and allowing them to grow into each other. They were then anchored onto the bottom of the lake, which was about 20m deep at that point. There were 50 or more of the islands at that time, each with a number of families living on them. We were treated to a song to welcome us and a demonstration of how the islands are made.



After checking out some of the local weavings on one of the islands, we took a boat to the next one. It was a small reed boat that was paddled by one of the people who lived on the the island we left.









After visiting the islands we headed off to go to another island further out in the Lake. The hats and clothes worn by the men of the island were important for establishing whether they were married or not. Their hats would be a different colour if they were single than if they were married. Traditionally the men made their own hats. After a short walk on the island, we stopped at a small place for lunch. However, before this we were treated to an example of traditional dancing and a market of some more handicrafts. The dancing and music was incredible and at the end they had some of the group - including Zephie - up dancing as well.

This is the national flower of Peru.











After our meal, we walked back to the other side of the island to get back to the boat. We walked to the top of a small hill then down 500 very steep steps which everyone had to take slowly, although we soon saw some local women literally running down them!!!. Then we took the boat back to Puno!!

The Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, Copacabana and Isla del Sol

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After the hustle and bustle of La Paz we were dying to get back to the countryside and find a bit of tranquility - there probably is no better place than Lake Titicaca!!!

We took the bus from La Paz to Copacabana which is on the shore of the Bolivian side of the lake. Here is our first view of the lake, which is absolutely IMMENSE! It's so huge it looks like an ocean - you can't see the other side from wherever you are!

Copacabana was not quite what we had expected...in fact it was a little bit of a tourist trap and everything was quite tacky and crap! There were some pretty bits though....

We also found a BRILLIANT Mexican restaurant. It was decorated like some kind of fairy grotto inside and served brilliant spicy food! This was a welcome development since Bolivian food can be bland to say the least!

We had booked into a hotel to ensure we had somewhere to stay, but it was a bit expensive and when we got there we spotted an alojamiento (verrrryyy cheap and basic accomodation) and thought we'd give it a shot! At first glance the room looked ok, so we thought for the huge saving we would make it was a pretty good deal. Little did we realise that there were bloody dirty tissues on the floor, the ceiling was falling in and there were huge BUGS in the bed! EURGH!!!!!!!! So this is how we slept that night....



It was a good thing in the end because it meant we moved on sharpish! For about £1 each, we hopped on a boat to the Isla del Sol, which is the site of the Inca creation myth! The name means puma rock and surprise surprise! There is a rock that appears to show the head of a puma on it! According to thone version of the Inca creation myth, this is where the first Inca Manco Capac first appeared after he was brought from the depths of the lake by the sun god to bring light into the world. You can certainly see why the Incas believed this as the island is not of this world!!! It is stunningly beautiful...

We found a lovely little hostel right up on top of the cliff overlooking the port where we arrived. The views were incredible!!!! From here we could see the bay, the Isla del Luna and the mountains in the distance. It was a truly magical place. Life here was much more subdued than on the mainland. Most people were farmers and lived really traditional ways of life.

We arrived mid afternoon, so by the time we got out to do anything we didn't have much time before the sun went down and the island was plunged into darkness. We took a walk up the Inca steps (we came to realise that the Incas LOVED steps, much to my legs' disappointment) into the village for something to eat. Although we had a crap meal, we were rewarded with the most incredible views.

This is the most incredible sunset I have ever seen...the light was incredible, almost like the northern lights! And you could see the mountains in the distance...oh my, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and one of the only things I can remember that has actually taken my breath away!



















Because the island is so small, we decided to walk round the whole thing the next day! In total we probably walked about 20km. It was hard going but we did it in good time and got to see all the ruins on the island. I somehow managed to miss a spot on my neck with the sunblock and as a result got the WORST sunburn of all time...It was so disgusting and painful and turned a very disconcerting shade of dark brown the next day!! Luckily I have healed!!!

In the morning we headed for the west coast of the island, which takes you through several farming communities and some gorgeous countryside. We were approached by quite a few children asking for 'caramel' or sweets and chocolate! We had bought some Oreos that morning as a little treat, but ended up giving them all away!!!

Quinoa plants...

All along the route we saw loads of lovely farm animals, including some brilliant pigs and loads of donkeys!

The communities themselves were small and peaceful and all the people were so friendly!!! This was a noticeable change from the mainland, where, to be honest, we thought people were a bit rude!

We reached a small village in the north of the island and stopped for a bowl of our staple quinoa soup YUM! We went to the Inca museum there, which was overstepping the mark slightly in calling itself that, because essentially it was just a dusty room! There were a couple of interesting artefacts from the island there, but I think we spent about 10 minutes in there before heading off to see the Inca ruins in the north of the island.

The whole way we were astounded by the scenery...

Then we reached the Inca Labyrinth (again, a bit of false advertising...!), but it was really beautiful, especially when looked at from afar with the lake and hills in view.

Here is the piedra sagrada, the sacred puma rock itself. A man there explained that you can see the visage of a puma on the rock. I could see what he meant but am not convinced it's a puma!














Then we started the trek back to the south of the island, which was supposedly quicker as it takes you directly across the island instead of weaving round the coast. We didn't realise this way would be up and down though so it was a bit tiring...!! As in many of our treks in South America we had a canine companion for much of it! A tiny but INSANE spaniel followed (well, led us really) us back to the village we were staying in. He was super happy and hyperactive and absolutely hilarious!!!

We made it back and were exhausted! But at this point we were seeing ourselves as in training for the Inca Trail so pushed through the burn!! We treated ourselves to a nice bowl of pasta and made it back to the hostel for sunset! Perfect!

The next day we decided to head back to the mainland so we could head to the Peruvian side of the lake. It was on this day that we discovered that national holidays in Bolivia mean it grounds to a halt, NOTHING happens, noone helps and people try to rip you off big time as a result! We waited for the boat that was due to sail at 10:30ish, along with quite a few other people who wanted to leave that day too. After a while we were informed that there were no public boats running, but that we could get a private boat altogether as long as we paid FIVE TIMES the price! We were really annoyed but decided to go for it because we were against the clock a bit as we had to get to Cuzco in time to finalise our Inca Trail arrangements. As we approached the mainland we realised that we weren't heading to Copacabana port at all...there were some very irate Spaniards onboard, who we were struggling to understand, but we assumed we were making a stop before arriving at Copacabana. Ooooh no, in fact, we were being dropped in the middle of nowhere! There wasn't even a port, we had to jump off the boat with our huge backpacks onto a random wall in the middle of the water, then climb over barbed wire fences!!!!! The guy refused to take us to Copacabana (I wanted to stay on the boat until he bloody well took us there, but noone backed me up...grrr!), so we all started the walk back to Copacabana, which actually only took about 10-20 minutes so it wasn't too bad, but it didn't stop me shouting at the guy who ripped us off!!! We were all so mad!

Anyway, it was nothing a hot shower, comfy bed and good feed wouldn't sort out!