After yesterday's road blocks we decided to get up early and allow plenty of time for a taxi to divert its way around any potential problems in order to get our 7.30am bus to Cuzco. Hence, we were dressed and ready to go at 6.30am only to be greeted by the man in the hostal reception cheerily telling us that he’d rung the bus company and they’d delayed the departure time until 9.00am because of the demonstrations and road blocks. These, he assured us, were scheduled to finish at 9.00am and he suggested we go upstairs and have breakfast and leave later for the bus. We panicked a little, worried that the bus may leave without us, but when we got upstairs and watched the passing straggly groups of demonstrators shouting and smashing glass bottles in the street, aiming them towards the few cars that we’re daring to pass through, we decided that perhaps we were safer staying put for a while.

Every now and then it seemed to die down but then another group would appear from a different direction. At about 8am we decided we really needed to make our way to the bus station, called a taxi and got there safe and sound, with only a few detours around boulders in the road. Our bus eventually got going around 10.00am but a few hundred yards down the road had to reverse up and try a different route as the road was covered in a wide swathe of broken glass. We then took a secondary route out of town but soon joined a line of lorries, buses and cars at a standstill because the road was blocked by a demonstration. Fortunately we had decided to take a bus that stopped at various Inkan sites en-route so we had a guide, which in normal circumstances we don’t have when travelling between cities. He earnt his money this time, keeping us up to date with the day’s events and action! He explained that the protests were over a hydro-electric project that is, at present, just a project. There is no hydro-electric dam in progress but the local elections are approaching and the politicians are stirring up local emotions.There were groups coming into town from Juliaca, to the north of Puno, to join the local protests and they were coming downhill towards the junction we were trying to get through. He also said that the protestors tend to get rather worked up and angry and it was better to stay behind them, in the bus, rather than try to get through and aggravate things more. Eventually, about an hour later, they had all gone through and we were able to continue (start!) our journey. There were lots of rocks and boulders in the road as we made our way out of town but we zig-zagged our way through and headed off!

Our first stop was in Pukara, where we visited a small museum dedicated to Inkan history, where we had a whistle-stop tour and potted history of the local Inkan sites. The main feature here seems to be innumerable statues of a god holding a head in his hands. Maybe a war trophy, maybe cannibalism. Who knows? Unfortunately, as in many of the museums here, we weren’t allowed to take photos and there were too many people around to manage it surreptitiously!







At La Raya, the point where the Occidental range of the Andes converges with the Oriental range, we stopped for a quick photo shot and were once again besiged by locals who wanted to sell us rugs, socks, blankets, ponchos etc. Either that or, for the price of one Sol, you could have a photo of the local woman with her llama tied to a concrete post at the side of the road We fought our way through, got our photos of the snow-capped mountains and went on our way.

Our next stop was in a small village called Raqchi. Here there are the remains of a huge Inkan temple reputed to have been built to appease the god Viracocha after he had caused a nearby volcano to spew out fiery boulders in a fit of rage. The centrall wall of the temple reamins, now capped with roof tiles to prevent further erosion of the adobe walls.   The temple site is surrounded by dwellings, storage houses etc and an enclosing wall high up on the hillside to keep out the enemies (which of course wasn’t entirely successful when the Spanish arrived!)Back in the main square of the present-day village, we fought our way through the usual gang of locals selling knitted llamas, woolly jumpers, panpipes etc and continued on our way.  
 
What does strike us as we meet young local, well-educated guides here is the strong ties to their roots. Despite their modern lives, there is still an underlying belief in the traditions and ancestors. Interwoven with catholicism brought in by the Spaniards, this can create what may seem to the westerner some very strange practices and beliefs.

Unfortunately we didn’t manage the last scheduled stop. We should have visited an old church with an elaborately painted interior but due to our rather late departure from Puno, this was closed by the time we got there. We arrived in Cuzco only about 3 hours late, but on the outskirts we then got stopped by the police, who hauled the driver in for having a defective headlight! We could see him gesturing that he had a bus-load of tourists to deliver (well, 11 of us on a mostly-empty coach) but they took him off, presumably to get a bribe out of him, and eventually let him continue (still without headlight) to our destination. We arrived in the dark on the side of the road somewhere in Cuzco, not in the bus station as we expected, so just grabbed a taxi, gave him the address of the hostal and thought we were nearly there. We drove into the Plaza de Armas, the main square, knowing that our hostal was only two blocks from there. It was quite a surprise when he drove through a narrow arch, did a right-angle bend and went up a very steep hill not much wider than the car itself. However, a few yards before the hostal the driver seemed as surprised as we were to have our way blocked completely by a huge amount of earth and stones, the result of recent landslides which have affected many parts of Cuzco. Over the next few days were realised the extent of these landslides.

The town is built on steep hillsides and the view from our hostel reveals huge sheets of blue plastic all over town. These cover areas where the land has slipped. The local council have shored up the remaining land and covered it to try and prevent further rain washing more away. Many houses are left balancing precariously on the edge of the remaining land and others have fallen completely, leaving many people homeless. The government have provided each of these families with a blue tent and in various places you see rows of these tents.. It doesn't look much, but many of these people didn't have much in the first place. Nevertheless, your home is your home and it must be devastating to lose it.

Cuzco itself is a beautiful old town, with many historic colonial buildings and, of course, lots of churches, galleries and museums. One of the amazing things is that there are so many buildings built on and around Inkan walls. There are loads of old narrow cobbled streets, hoards of touts selling tours and innumerable shoe-shine boys. Most of all, the favoured way for locals in this area to make money is to go out in traditional costume with a llama, lamb, kitten or small child, also dressed up, and persude tourists to pay a Sol for a photo. A woman and llama out at the ruins in the wilds of the mountains doesn’t seem too out of place, but here in the town centre it’s not so convincing!

Cuzco is normally the jumping-off point for visits to Machu Picchu, which is still inaccessible at the moment due to the floods earlier in the year which washed away the railway line and road between here and Aguas Clientes, the nearest village to the site. Predictions are that it will re-open as planned at the beginning of April, but in the meantime it is having a drastic affect on the tourist trade in Cuzco as many people have cancelled trips. It's making life difficult for the huge number of people who depend on tourists for their livelihood, and it's a shame as there's so much more to see in Peru besides the big site that everyone knows about.

And if you don't go to Cuzco you don't find Intari, the bar that doesn’t sell any beer at all. Instead it specialises in 'Alma de 20 Plantas’ (the spirit of 20 plants), an interesting and very more-some drink served up in a guinea-pig shaped jug. Just what you need on a rainy Cuzco evening after the journey that we had from Puno!