September 24, 2007
From SATA-Peru-2007
Today we had breakfast at 6AM with the usual mate de coca or coffee; with bread, butter and jam, and maracuya juice (passion fruit). Then we gathered "on time" and left at 6:45 by taxi to the bus station. The bus left Cusco (“qosq'o” in the Quechua language means navel of the earth) around 7:30AM.
Our first visit was Andahuaylillas, famous for their lavishly decorated 17th century Jesuit Church with the most baroque embellishments and "Arabesque" decorations. We were able to get a tour but we could not take pictures using a flash but some how my camera got some images without one, although I think that a guard was very suspicious and watched me carefully. Outside the Church, the plaza is known to have some of the oldest p'ate trees (a legume with beautiful red flowers, in the genus Erythrina), aged to be around 400 years old.
Our next stop was the famous temple of Raqchi, with the largest known roofed temple of the Inca Empire, the Temple of Viracocha, with its 22 stone columns holding a roof 12 meters tall by 40 meters wide and approximately 55 meters long - A soccer field could fit inside. It is quite impressive and inside had the 12 corner crosses that symbolize the world of the sky (or future represented by the Condor symbolizing justice and peace), the actual or earth world (present represented by the Puma or strength), and the underground world (past, represented by the Snake [Amaru] or wisdom). This palace was surrounded by other temples and 200 lodges with a conical roof and a stone wall that covered 7 square kilometers. Most of it was destroyed by the Spaniards with their destructive "Legend Negra". Fortunately, in the temple, I met an Inca (orejone or noble) and was able to practice my Kechua and he was very happy to speak his ancestral language.
For Lunch, we stopped at Sicuani to have lunch at a buffet restaurant. The irony is that you can eat as much as you can but you are at 4,200 meters above sea level and it is recommended to not eat much to avoid altitude sickness. Hence, it is a good protection from large tourists finishing the buffet bar food!
By 5:15PM, we arrived to our day destination, Puno. There we had a fantastic dinner at a very nice restaurant next to Plaza de Armas, and as usual, my drinks were complements of the restaurant. We needed to get in bed early for our early 7AM trip to three islands, Urus, Taquiles and Amantani, in Lake Titicaca.
