Peru (day nine... part two)

The magnificent travels of Megann Phillips: a journal

Day 09 in Peru (part 02)

March 23, 2013

Lunch on a schedule

        The thing I really don't like about tours is the tight schedule; that, and I sense that sometimes the atmosphere is too commercial, or too scripted. 

        We are back on the tour bus after a exactly forty-minute excursion to a very touristy restaurant. There was a loud band playing traditional Peruvian music, but asking for tips in perfect English... and there was a buffet. 

        But outside the windows of the spotlessly decorated restaurant, I could see a young boy struggling to lead a loose llama back to his stake, and the view of landscape was breathtaking. I find that it's pretty difficult to script what goes on outside the confines of a bus or a restaurant.

"Come one, little llama... Follow the snack back to your stake..."

We've been calling this one "Grumpy Llama".

Upon entering the province of Puno...

I notice these things:

1) The altitude is higher, and the vast expanse of mountains around us seem lower. (It would make sense, I guess, since we are at a higher elevation than before, when I observed the mountains from Cusco.)

2) Instead of there being many vivid red adobe buildings, most (but not all) of the mud brick  structures are gray or gray-brown or muted brown. Also, red tile roofs have been replaced by aging tin.

3) Thirdly, the weather us colder. I feel the chill through my jacket and can sometimes see snow in the mountains.

4) Trees are rare, but grass is abundant. It a big change from Cusco; there, the rough mountainsides and endless hills seemed like they should have supported a barren landscape, but the vegetation was akin to that I found in Maui two summers passed.

Pucara

        Our tour bus made its last stop of the day in Pucara, an interesting pre-Inca site for which reasons which remain not entirely clear to me. I assume it is because it is near the location where the artifacts in the pre-Inca museum were found... On display were statues of beheaded artistic human figures; renditions of human sacrifice through decapitation. One statue depicted a man eating a small child (human sacrifice through cannibalism).

This fact which I learned some days ago

        While exploring Machu Picchu earlier this week, Elvis told Dad, Cara, and I that the Incas (note: not pre-Incas) rarely practiced human sacrifice, except in times if dire need. Instead, they sacrificed animals with black fur. They believed the color black harnessed the power of the sun; and the sun god was of the utmost importance to them.

Another piece of trivia: How did I not notice it before?

        Our guide pointed out that the bulls placed on top of nearly every building in Andean Peru always come in pairs. Looking back, I must have recognized it in the back of my mind, but the locals have consciously noted that los torritos de Pachamama do their best work in twos. 

        Another fun fact that our guide verbalized on the subject of lost torritos: Because the vast majority of peruanos are catholic, Pachamama's bulls are often placed on rooftops on either side of a Christian cross.

Look! The bulls are a pair, protecting the fertility and wellness of the structure they rest atop.