Traveling to Puno

When I was looking for transportation to Puno, the train was too expensive to take both ways so we decided to take a bus one way.  It is a long trip so I found one bus that stopped 12 times and one bus that cost a little more that only stopped 5 times.  I knew the buses in Peru were comfortable and clean and I envisioned a relaxing trip stopping a few times to let passengers on and off.  I picked the 5 stop bus.  Well, I can get the jest of what is being said or written in Spanish, but I often don't get the details.

And that is what happened!  We had been hearing about all of these neat places to stop and see on the way to Puno, and were sorry we would miss them.  But oh well, we got on this bus.  It turns out that this bus stopped at the places we had heard about, and it had a guide and two young women that served drinks and snacks on board.  What a surprise!

First stop the San Pedro Church in the town of Andahuaylillas that had more gold inside that I have ever seen.  No churches in Europe that I ever saw was like this.  As you can see the outside is unremarkable, but the inside is dazzling. (No photos allowed)

The second stop was at Raqchi where there are ruins of a huge adobe complex built by the Inca  Pachacutec.  For some reason the Spanish did not destroy it completely.

We stopped for lunch and went over the pass in the afternoon.  It is over 14,000 ft and the highest place on the earth that I have ever been.

At the same place, glaciers and the women selling their goods.  It is windy and cold here and I wonder how they can survive each day waiting for tourists.

The last stop before getting to Puno was at a little museum where there were artifacts and mummies found in ruins near there.  

Puno here we come