| Activities
and Events from Puno to Cusco |
| Day
7 |
| SouthWind quote |
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Ride in a public tourist bus for an 8 hour trip from Puno
to Cusco. At Uros, you will exit the bus to join your tour guide (Rosa)
to visit the archaeological sites at Chokepukio and Pikillacta. Overlooking
Lake Muina, these cities along with Cusco comprise the three major
prehistoric centers in the Cusco valley. Almost everywhere, one glimpses
ruins of ancient cultures including a royal Inca estate built by Huascar,
the last of the Inca rulers. The ancient pyramid mound of the Mamacolla
makes an impressive sight from the highway. Pikillacta was constructed as
a provincial capital of the Huari Empire which ruled most of highland Peru
between 600-800 A.D. We'll return to the Hotel Liberator (or similar)
and dinner is on your own. (CB,L) |
| email home from Cusco |
| |
Hello Mom -
This in the second time I am writing this letter since the computer reset
itself in the middle of the previous letter. Computers are ususally 486s
running w95 and connected to a shared modem. It is really slow, you can
knit a sweater waiting for pages to load. But hey, they have it and I
am here talking to you. The keyboard is different so I spend some time
looking for the backspace and hypen. This keyboard has most of the letters
missing from the keyboard, so I am looking at a set of blank keys.
Took a bus from Puno to Cusco in a tourist bus filled with mostly women
from every other county but the States. I enjoyed the estogen and speaking
English to a group of tourists from Austrailia. I haven't found more than
one or two people from the US. Mostly people are from Europe. We arrived
Uros and met our guide Rosa. She took us to ruins outside of Cusco in
the pouring rain and we hiked until dark. We all had a good laugh in the
five star hotel warching the bell boy sweep up after us, as we tracked
in adobe on our boots. The shoe shin boys would very eager to clean my
shoes, but I said Mi Gusta estan susio. I like them dirty.
-Bindy
Hello everyone-
We made it to Puno fine and crashed in the hotel. Got up the next morrning
to catch a bus at 8:30 to Cusco. We were on time but the Bus did not show
up until 9:00 so we were on the road at 9:30 with 26 other toristimos.
It was a beautiful (8hr) drive up over the continental devide (road crosses
14140ft not the highest we have been). One side drains to the Amazon and
the other to the Urabamba Rios. We met our new guide (Rosa) in Urcos outside
of Cusco. We were two hrs late due to lots of road construction. We went
to some ruins (Pikillaqta) on the way. It was Pouring Rain and getting
dark but we went for it (man in adoby sticky!). There are over 1000 homes
and were an estimated 5000 inhabitants. On to Cusco. We reached our hotel
by 7:30 and we were BEAT! The holet we were set to be in was being remodeled
so we were up graded. As we were waiting to check in Bindy stsrted laughing.
Here we were in one of the Fanciest hotels in Cusco (Fancy even for the
states) in our boots just covered with mud and leaving trails.
-Gary
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| Bus
ride from Puno to Cusco |
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Lunch stop had a pet hawk that kept us amused. |
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| Cusco |
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| Lonely Planet quote |
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The archaeological capital of the
Americas and the oldest continuously inhabited city on the continent, Cuzco
is now an important link in the South American travel network. Its legacy
as the hub of the Inca empire is readily apparent: most of the city streets
are lined with Inca-built stone walls and crowded with Quecha-speaking descendants
of the Incas. The city has magnificent repositories of colonial art such
as the catedral (begun in 1559) and La Merced Church. There is also the
Coricancha ruins, east of the city center, which were formerly covered with
gold (the stonework is all that remains) and the Museo de Arqueológia, the
interior of which is filled with metal and gold work, jewelery, pottery,
textiles and mummies. Four other ruins - Sacsayhuamán, Qenko, Puca Pucara
and Tambo Machay - are nearby. |
| GORP Quote |
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Cuzco was the Incan capital, the
center of their religious and administrative life. The town is built on
the Incan stonewalls, marvels of engineering put together without mortar
and able to withstand more than 500 years of wrenching earthquakes. Unlike
sprawling Lima, this is a relatively small city of 250,000 inhabitants.
Cuzco is often compared to Kathmandu in Nepal for being at cosmopolitan,
of manageable size, and the springboard for excursions into the surrounding
countryside. In Cuzco proper, the prime Incan attraction is Koricahcha,
the Incan empire's richest temple. The Church of Santo Domingo now stands
on most of its site. But you can still visit its three side chambers dedicated
to the moon, thunder and the rainbow. |
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| Chokepukio |
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active archaeological dig |
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| Pikillacta |
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The Wari provincial site of Pikillacta in the
valley of Cuzco, Peru, comprised the first extensive excavation of the second-largest
existing Wari architectural complex. Occupied between {\sc A.C.} 600 and
900, Pikillacta was built in three successive construction phases and finally
abandoned before completion of the final one. Excavations revealed well-preserved
architecture in the center of the site, including such features as gypsum-plastered
floors and walls; superimposed floor remains collapsed on one another, demonstrating
the existence of multi-storied buildings; plastered staircases; plaster-lined
niches; and a variety of sub-floor offering pits. Although the interiors
of the buildings were largely devoid of artifacts, excavations in the site's
principal midden produced an abundance of material: large quantities of
ceramic remains, including such foreign styles as Nazca and Cajamarca, as
well as objects of bone, shell, metal, obsidian, and worked stone. Evidence
is presented that addresses many of the long-standing questions regarding
this unusual site. The data suggest a sudden but orderly abandonment of
Pikillacta in the midst of the last construction phase. Entrances to many
of the buildings were carefully sealed, and at least one partially constructed
building was intentionally buried. There is also evidence that the central
portion of the site was consumed by fire during or shortly after abandonment.
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2 | Day 3 | Day
4 | Day 5 | Day
6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day
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13 | Day 14 |
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