'8 horas' stated the sales man for the time a bus would take to Puno from Cuzco. We left wondering if he meant 8 hours, or dreading if he meant 8pm.
Well, it turns out it wasn't either. At the 13th hour mark, and after witnessing the omen of an over turned bus in a river bank with bodies scattered under a tarp, we arrived in Juliaca. 1 Hour from Puno. Tired and angry,our bus driver then informs us at 11pm he refuses to drive any longer. After a vigillant Peruvian revolt from our fellow passengers we had a combi screaming us to Puno. We arrived at midnight! Horray!
Puno was a quaint town, full of arcade games and schools. We mostly spent the days out of the town visiting more ruins to Amy's delight.
Sillastani has a beautiful setting, perched on a mountain over looking a lake. Huge circular towers acting as tombs are scattered around from both pre Incan and Incan cultures. The Incan towers being the superior structures built with the famous precision cyclopean masonary.
The next day Aaron dragged poor Amy out to another ruin, Amaru Muro, he had reasearched a year ago on the internet. Iperu tourist information helped with the location, 5 mins north of Juli, so we were off. It was a sacred door carved into a sheer rock formation, which did not open, but rather a representation. Legends rumour of an Incan shaman who had a golden disk that unlocked the door to another world. He opened it one day and gave the key to a witness and never returned. Crazy rock formations set the scene, jutting like plates sideways out of the earth. We spent about 3o mins here, paid our gringo tax then spent about an hour trying to flag down a bus to get back. Getting off the beaten gringo track has its disadvantages!
