En route to puno

So after having been back home for 2 and a half months, with catching up with folk and a mini trip to Marrakech, we thought it was finally time to catch up on the blog. Not sure if anyone is reading it anymore but might as well finish it before we jet off to South East Asia on Wednesday!

After the success of the Inca trail, we decided it was time to hang up the old walking boots and put the trekking on hold for a while. It was time for us to make our way to our last stop in Peru, Puno, which sits on the legendary shores of lake Titikaka, the supposed birth place of the Incas.

We could have taken a five hour bus journey for this one or there was the option of a bus which stopped off at five different sites along the way which would obviously take a while longer but would be much more entertaining than boring each other on the bus with more card games, or the usual time killer, sleeping. So off we set on our site seeing tour bus, delightfully named, "the route of the sun".

I've handily put a little run down below with picture assistance for those who learn more through imagery (hey I did learn something at uni!) with the metres above sea level with each. We'd been in Cusco at 3,800 metres for a while now and tackled Machu Pichu so sitting on a bus 500 or so metres more wasn't going to be an issue.

• Cusco (3800 m.a.s.l.)
• Andahuaylillas (3122 m.a.s.l. )
• Raqchi (3450 m.a.s.l.)
• Sicuani Village (3552 m.a.s.l.)
• Raya Pass (4335 m.a.s.l )
• Pucara Museum (3900 m.a.s.l )
• Puno (3400 m.a.s.l ) 

Anyway first stop, Andahuaylillas, which basically meant we went to a big ass church. Exciting times.  As you can see from our picture, it isn't all that interesting. However, it is in fact interesting, we just weren't allowed to take pictures and this is the best that we could sneak in before we got to the actually interesting part!

The church is nicknamed "the Sixtine Chapel of America" because of the magnificent frescos that adorn its walls. Which through the power of google, you kids can now all see. I would have tried to lie that we took that picture, but those of you with any minimal detective skills will notice the logos and text at the bottom. I was tempted to crop them out but to be honest I just couldn't be bothered. I'm a busy man here taking time out from my viewing of Beauty and the Geek to catch up with this blog, and cropping isn't going to speed the process up. Plus you'd miss those lovely pews.

Viewing of church completed, we moved onto the much more interesting mini museum thingy. Why was it much more interesting than the Sixteen Chapel of America? Good question, and the answer lies in the mysterious world of the unknown.....alienology. The Privado Ritos Andinos museumm houses a skeleton claimed by many to be that of an alien due to its elongated skull and abnormally large eye sockets. Sceptics argue that it is simply the remains of a tribal child where evidence shows tribal rituals took place to alter the shape of the skull at a childs early age. The skull does have a soft spot seen in humans in their first year of life, however this skull also has two large molar teeth, only found in much older humans. Whatever it is, it's interesting. Make your own mind up. If you're interested, read more here.

Either way, if you hadn't made your own mind up, the museum were determined to assist you in your thought processes with their requests for funding.

With our minds made up, we jumped back onto the bus and next stopped at Raqchi, where we saw yet some more Inca ruins. For those of you who are interested, this site formally gave home to the Temple of Wiracocha, but all that stood now was a wall. O well, should have made their buildings out of something stronger than mud then. In its day however, it is believed to have sported the largest single roof in the entire Inca empire. Sadly the good old Spanish turned up and burned it to the ground, not sure how that was so destructive as I'm pretty sure mud and brick aren't flamable but they must have done something right as only one wall and a few supportive pillars stand today.

With the morning drawing to a close, we jumped back on the bus and stopped off at Sicuani Village for some lunch. No sites here, literally just a buffet lunch. Well thats all we thought we were been treated to until we needed the toilet which was outside where we saw the second delight of a super shaggy lama. Happy days.

With full bellies we set off to our fourth stop Raya Pass, at an impressive 4,335 metres above sea level. Raya Pass (as it's name would suggest) is a passageway through the La Raya mountain range. Thankfully we weren't out to trek today as that looks like a bit of a mish by this photo of the tallest summit in the range, Chimpulla at 5,489 metres.

Getting off at our last stop we were greeted by a majestic church, but we weren't here for that, but instead the "Museo Litico de Pucara" (Pucara Stone Museum), which displayed a good little selection of anthropomorphic monoliths, zoomorphic sculptures, ceramics, and other objects from the Pucara pre-Inca Culture. No I didn't know what any of that meant either but I would later find out that it refers to statue thingies of the human form with animal features or something along those lines. I'm still a bit confused.

Anyway, once again being informed that we couldn't take photos, I interpreted that as meaning that we weren't allowed to be caught taking photos, maybe it was lost in the Spanish translation somewhere. Anyway, here's a big statue thingy with a snake somewhere in there, it's been a while since we were told the explanation so that will about cover it for you guys, find a snake, it's in there somewhere probably along with some other interesting things.

Then there was this little chap who had a ceremonial knife in one hand and a head in the other. I wonder what that was depicting. We'd come across a few instances on our travels aluding to past cultures chopping others heads off, I'm assuming this was a similar instance.

There were some other cool artifacts in the museum, which I found hard to get a snap off so that's your lot on this one kids. We jumped back on the bus and headed to our final destination in Peru....Puno.