Although I am a little late with the posts, here are some details and pictures to update you. From Macchu Picchu we took a tour through the Sacred Valley. First stop was Pisac which is an old Inca ruin that was used for agriculture. It was at a higher altitude then Cusco and we could feel it. It was gorgeous though and well worth the bit of altitude sickness!! After Pisac we headed to Ollantaytambo and then onto the a small town called Chincerro. It was slightly stormy in Chincerro which made it eery but also very beautiful. When the Spanish invaded the Inca Empire, the aspired to destroying everything Incan so that they would not return to their religion and culture. They figured out however that the Incan's were smart and built their structures earthquake proof (at a slant) so they would strip down buildings to their core and then build up from there. In Chincerro there is a Catholic church that was originally an Incan temple and which still has Incan influences in it's design since they were used as slaves by the Spanish. The next day we traveled with a tour bus to Puno. Puno is at an elevation of 3900m so we were prepared for the worst. Although I have never been to India, Puno is kind of how I picture India. There is a train that goes through the middle of the city with children playing on the tracks and then moving for the trains. The city is very dusty and looking at it from Lake Titicaca, it almost blends into the mountain so you can't see it. We did a day trip along Lake Titicaca and visited the floating villages of Uros. This was very different from the floating villages in Cambodia since the people in Cambodia build little rafts with roofs that they float on and then build smaller rafts for their chickens and they are connected by rope. On Lake Titicaca the people live on 2m of reeds that they are constantly replenishing with more reeds as the ones below rot. They can also eat the reeds they live on for food and naturally they eat fish. After that we went to the Island of Taquile which let's just say, we were not warned about the 700m climb to the top of (my apologies SB). At the top was the main square and there was an election going on so there was lots of activities happening. We opted out of the fish lunch (cat fish) so we brought some food and watched the locals who were naturally watching us. Afterwards we had to find our group to catch our boat, fortunately we left early to do this since the way down (which was on the other side of the island) wasn't obvious and well, we got lost. In total we were at about 5000m and boy oh boy could you feel it!! We did the treacherous hike down and caught our boat just in time. Next stop, 6 hour bus to Arequipa and then 16 hours back to Lima. The next day we departed ways as my friend flew home and I got on my 16 hour and then 8 hour bus back to Loja!
