Hello, Everyone --

This is the second installment of my report on our trip to Peru and back.  The day after we were at Machu Picchu, we spent the day touring Cusco itself.  Here a few pictures from there . . .

This is the Basilica de La Merced (Basilica of Mercy) in the central plaza.  FYI (since I had to look this up, myself), as a general rule basilicas are the highest ranking churches and are declared so by the Pope. Cathedrals were typically built during the Middle Ages and are headed by a bishop. However, if this bishop is head of his diocese, then his cathedral outranks any basilica in his diocese.

This is the Cathedral of Cusco, located in the Plaza Central.

This is the statue in the Plaza Central, facing the cathedral.

It represents the last Inca Emperor.  

Cusco is known for its blend of Inca and Hispanic history and culture.

Our tour took us all around the city and up to the top of a hill on the south side where this statue is placed.

We are finding that many South American cities have a Christus.

This one is about one-quarter the size of the one in Cochabamba.

As we drove into the parking area for the Christus, we saw this cholita with her llama.  

When she saw me looking out the van window, she immediately covered her face with a cloth.  

This is not because she is afraid to have her picture taken, 

but rather she doesn't want anyone taking her picture without paying for it.  

She brings her llama up to the Christus when there are tourist vans/buses there and poses for pictures.

This is the view of the city from the Christus.

On the way back down to the city we passed this Inca fortification which covers an entire hill, but unfortunately we didn't stop to explore it.  

We also passed a small church where these cholitas were standing.

I wanted you to see the two types of hats they wear in Peru.

I have never seen the "dinner plate" style on an indigena in Bolivia.

In the afternoon we walked a couple of miles looking at different buildings, walls, and shops.  This is a long shot of the park in front of the Church of Santo Domingo (out of sight on the left), which was built by the Spaniards on top of what had been the most important temple in the Inca Empire.

This is looking back the other way and now you can see the church itself (the stone buildings).

The white buildings are a convent and school added during colonial times.

I want to share a little bit about this site because I think it's really interesting.  The Qorikancha, the Temple of Inti (the supreme Sungod), was the most important Inca temple. It was the jewel of Inca architecture, built on granite blocks carved with molten gold in the joints of the blocks. Inside the temple there was a garden in which the trees, birds and animals were all represented in gold. The temple was surrounded by a crown of gold, and all the walls covered in gold plates. In the sanctuary there was a big gold record (Punchau) representing Inti. The mummies of the Inca kings up to Huayna Capac (the 12th King) were presented sitting in chairs and wearing gold jewelry, as if alive.

On arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, the Qorikancha was half destroyed by savage looting. To banish the worship of Inti, the Spanish built the Catholic church of Santo Domingo on top of the Inca temple.  All Inca roads in the entirety of Tahuantinsuyo converged at the Qoricancha, making it the central point of the Inca empire.

Isn't that a sad story?

And here we are, with the church behind us.

We also visited the Chocolate Museum, which has wonderful displays and information about the history of cocoa/chocolate and how it's made.  Of course they sell every possible flavor of chocolate there.  Below is a display of chocolate bars.  There's even one flavored with hot peppers.

The next morning we left Cusco by bus and traveled for 8 hours to Puno.  (Let me just say that even on the most comfortable bus - which is an oxymoron, anyway - 8 hours is about 4 hours too long.  I won't do that again.)  The first part of the journey was very beautiful; here are some of those pictures . . .

This made me think of some of our western states.  Isn't it beautiful?

(We're at about 11,000 feet altitude here, and climbing.)

This was taken outside of one of the many tiny towns we passed.  That is a field of abas (flat beans), which are a little bigger than lima beans and almost tasteless.  Please note the blue outhouse.  Apparently the government had a "public hygiene" program a few years ago and now ALL of the houses in these little towns have blue outhouses (except for one town we passed later in the day which had bright yellow ones.)

This is a cholita moving her cows from one grazing area to another.

In the entire day, I only saw one man herding cattle.

All the other flocks (sheep, llamas, goats, pigs, and cattle) were herded by cholitas.

I guess that's their role in campo (countryside) society. 

This is a herd of llama; we saw several much larger herds.

And if you look right in the center of the picture,

you will see the two cholitas who are herding/watching the llamas.

Much later in the day we reached Juliaca, the town just before Puno.

It was incredibly dusty, dirty and generally awful, 

though much of that was caused by every street being under construction. 

This is to let you see how Latin Americans routinely create 3 lines of traffic 

(and sometimes 4) out of a 2-way street.

Here's another view of Juliaca.  You can see why it wasn't my favorite place to be.

Actually, I need to interject something here.  Juliaca was dirty, but on the whole, Peru was amazingly and wonderfully CLEAN.  We were thrilled to find that the streets in Cusco, in the little town of Machu Picchu, and in Puno were litter-free.  There was absolutely no graffiti (something which is everywhere in Bolivia). Perhaps it's because all three towns/cities are tourist-oriented, I don't know, but we surely appreciated it!!

As we crept through Juliaca, we saw many of these "bicycle-taxis".

The drivers are fearless.  This one pulled right in front of our bus.

I took this picture looking out the front of the bus 

and I don't think there were 3 feet between the bicycle's back tire and our bumper!

I'm not sure how the buses go slow enough to keep from running over these guys, but they manage it.

These cute little things are called "moto-taxis" because there is a motorcycle rather than a bicycle powering it.
This red-and-white version was my favorite of all we saw.  They seemed to be uniformly clean and undented.  I want to bring one home for our daughter who presently rides her bike to work when it's not raining.  Don't you think this would look terrific on the streets of San Jose, California?

This is just to show you the preponderance of bicycle-taxis and moto-taxis in Peruvian cities.

They are truly EVERYWHERE.

The bus stopped for gas just outside Puno.   Check out these prices.  The Peruvian sole (plural: soles - prounced so-lay and so-lace) is worth 3 American dollars.  Therefore the cheapest gasoline, the one in the middle, is over $4 a gallon.  The most expensive (G-90) is $5.30 a gallon.  Wow!

We entered Puno shortly thereafter.

This is just before we started down the winding street into the city.

Puno, like so many cities in Bolivia and Peru, is set in a bowl - or half a bowl in this case.

It faces Lake Titicaca.

And here was our first glimpse of the lake, taken about halfway down the hill.

This is a map of the lake.  We saw the map while visiting the Floating Islands,

but I wanted to put it here to give you an idea how really huge it is.

The words at the bottom say, "The highest navigable lake in the world."

60% of it is in Peru and the other 40% in Bolivia.

This is the municipal building in the Plaza Central of Puno.
Our hotel was just one block off the plaza.
The signs on the front of the building are in Spanish and Aymara (a native language.)

I was too tired (and too sick from the bus) to do any sightseeing that first evening,

but we did visit the area just off the plaza where all the restaurants and tourist attractions are.

This was one of the signs.  Anyone know what is a "molecular gastro bar"??

This is the Cathedral of Puno which faces the Plaza Central.

It is beautiful in the daytime but truly gorgeous at night.

I hope you can see that from this picture.

 The next day we spent the morning and afternoon on a trip to the Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca.

This was the view of the dock as we approached. 

This is a picture of our motor launch (taken later actually, while we were on one of the islands.)

I understand Puno used to be a very small town but someone realized they had a major tourist attraction in the Floating Islands and now the principal business in Puno is tourism.  It is a good thing, actually, that the Uro Tribe developed this business; otherwise, their handicrafts and the ancient way of living might have disappeared forever.  This is the channel that was cleared among the reeds so the motor launches could go easily, quickly and safely out to the islands.

This is the entrance to the Floating Islands (and yes, there is a fee.)

Notice the traditional thatched hut.

This is one of the islands we passed.  The tourist boats can stop wherever they want.  Our particular guide had another island in mind.  They seem to share them out, so to speak.

This is what "our island" looked like as we were getting off the boat.

That's our guide in the brown pants and shirt.

We all went and sat down on those "logs" in the half-circle.

Actually they are made of rolled-up reeds, as is nearly everything else on the island.

Not only do they build their houses of these reeds (called "totora"), but also they eat them.

Each of us was given one to try.  They are crunchy and very bland but not bad-tasting.

We saw a small demonstration of how the islands are built.

Notice the reeds are laid first one way and then across and then the first way again, etc.

After several layers of that, the houses are built on the spongy platform.

Those big blocks under the reeds/houses are what the old, dead reeds under the islands look like.

They do drive a stake down through the "floor" of the island into the dead reeds, to anchor the island.

This is what the entire "floor" of the island looks like.

It is very spongy and springy; a little like trying to walk on a trampoline.

Of course they can't have fires directly on the floor of their houses,

so this is how they cook.  They put rocks on the floor, then build the fire on the rocks.

The pots sit on a kind of ceramic platform, not directly on the fire.

These things are usually inside the house but this one was outside so we could take pictures.

 It is a constant labor to keep the islands thick enough, because the bottom reeds die and disintegrate,

so every day the men cut new reeds and bring them in to put more layers on the islands. 

They use motorboats, not rowboats, by the way.

There are 2 or 3 families on each island.  When a tourist launch comes, they sort of "divide up" the people.

This cute couple were our "hosts".  They showed us inside their little house and she offered to let me dress up in some traditional clothing for a picture if I wanted but I chose not to.  We did buy a couple of beautiful pillow-covers she had hand-embroidered as well as a tiny reed boat he had made.  Each couple or family keeps the money they make from selling their souvenirs and handicrafts.

 Here we decided to take a ride on one of the reed boats which are made in the old, traditional way.

The only "updated" thing on the boats is the little cabin you can see, 

which was added as shelter from the sun (though you can ride on top if you're not afraid of sunburn.)

This ride was extra (not included in our tour), but the money goes to a collective medical fund

for everyone on the island, so we were very happy to contribute.

Here's a better look at the kind of boat we rode in.  Notice it's not a power-boat; it's propelled by oars, just as in ancient times.  Incidentally, do you remember Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki?  The Kon-Tiki was built for Heyerdahl in this fashion and by one of these tribesmen who is still living, though now very old.

 While we were getting on the boat and the men were casting off,

these ladies (and one other whom you can't see) sang to us,

first traditional native songs and then "Row, Row, Row Your Boat!"

We were astonished to hear English and they were super-proud of themselves, with good reason.

Incidentally, notice the neon colors.  This is their tradition and it is beautiful!

This is one of the two schools which serve the island children.  One is an elementary school and the other is a junior high.  For high school the children go by boat to Puno.

This is the other school but I don't know which is which.

After our ride on the reed boat, we visited an island that had a restaurant and a place where we could get our passports stamped saying we had visited the "Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca."

It also had a viewing tower; here's Farron on top of it. 

And this is the view from the tower.  Notice the reeds extend as far as you can see (and not just in one direction.)

This was a water bird who just happened to be sitting near the foot of the tower.

Finally we headed back to Puno, and this is the view of the city from the motor launch.

That night we went to Los Balcones de Puno for dinner and a show.

This was similar to Los Origenes in Sucre but though the dancers weren't as many or (in my opinion) quite as talented, in two ways it was superior:  1) there were only 7 dances instead of 11 or 12 which meant the show was only 90 minutes long instead of over 2 hours; and 2) between the dances a band played (see below) and they were very good.  The man on the left is playing a traditional guitar; the next man, a charango (closeup below); the next man, drums; and the next two, various kinds of native flutes.

The charango is about the size of a ukelele, but it has at least 8 strings and sounds more like a mandolin.

This man was SO talented; it was a joy to listen to him.

This man was their vocalist and had an excellent voice.

The man to the right could play those native flutes faster, louder 

and with better tone than I would have thought possible.

And here are some pictures of the folk dances . . . Dance 1 . . .

 Dance 2

Dance 3

Dance 4

Dance 5

Dance 6

 Dance 7  -  which seemed to be a mixture of things.

First this devil - from the back . . .

 . . . and then from the front.

Later this other devil came in.

And then at the end, the first one came back.

As we left the restaurant we passed this shop, which is so typical of the tourist area I thought I would show you a picture.

The next morning before we left Puno, we met President and Sister Harburton of the Cusco Peru Mission. They were staying at the same hotel as we.  Here they are at breakfast with the president's two assistants and a lovely member from Puno.  We had met her at the temple previously but I don't know her name, sorry.

All in all, our stay in Puno was extremely enjoyable, especially the ride on the reed boat.  I can't remember the last time I felt that relaxed or enjoyed such beautiful silence.  There were no radios, no telephones ringing, no television blaring, not even much conversation among our group.  We just enjoyed the serenity.  It was WONDERFUL!

That's all for today.  Have a happy, healthy, safe week . . . y vayan con Dios!   (Next week - La Paz and Tiwanaku.)