Puno, on the northern shore of Lake Titicaca, is where most tours of the famous lake begin. It takes about 6-7 hours to get there from Cusco by regular bus, but we decided to take one of the nicer tourist buses instead:
The trip takes longer (about 9 hours), because these buses make several sightseeing stops along the way. Here are some of the highlights:
Seemingly endless farmland, accented with small villages and snow-capped mountains.
The Church of San Pedro Apóstol in Andahuaylillas, also known as the “Sistine Chapel of the Western Hemisphere”. Really impressive on the inside!
The Incan temple ruins at Raqchi were pretty cool:
as was the little chapel there (at least from the outside).
A lunch stop was included in the fare – accompanied by live Andean music. Which was great, because we can never get enough pan flute, and it had been almost 16 hours since I last heard Guantanamera.
We drove through the very un-touristy town of Juliaca, with its dirt roads and thousands of tri-taxis.
And near the end of the trip, the lush farmland gives way to the grassy Altiplano, dotted with herds of cow and alpaca.
As you can see, Ray was completely mesmerized by all the scenery:
All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to spend a day, but we have many more long bus rides ahead of us.
You can see more pictures from this scenic drive on our Flickr page.
{ 1 comment }
from all the bus talk I figured a rickety old bus with people holding chickens in cages not some fancy modern ride. looks very very cool!
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