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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Traveling Through the Andes to Lake Titicaca

The route from Cusco to Puno on Lake Titicaca is through the Andes, so it is both rugged and high altitude.  Nevertheless, there are several options for getting there. You can board a train: Perurail offers a 10.5 hour trip aboard the Andean Explorer. There is also a modern, well maintained highway, Highway 3S, that snakes 250 miles through the mountains, so you have the option of driving or taking a bus.  If you choose a bus, you can do a straight-up passenger bus that drives straight through in about 6 ½ hours or a tour bus that stops at interesting points along the way and takes a little over 10 hours.

We’ve considered all the options, and decided on the tour bus. Thus, on this day we take a taxi to the Inka Express bus terminal and are on the bus before 7:00 AM.  This bus has five stops and essentially moves backwards in time.  The first two stops are at old churches built by the Spanish in the 1500’s.  Further down the road and further back in time is the town of Raqchi with its Incan ruins that include the impressive Temple of Wiracocha.  Then after a lunch break and an early afternoon stop at La Raya Pass, the highest point on the journey, the bus stops for a visit to the museum in Pukara.  Pukara was a large and remarkable population center in the Pre-Inca “Late Formative Period” (500 BC- AD 200).  Here are the highlights of the day’s passage:

Andahuaylillas: 

We spend most of the first hour getting out of Cusco.  It seems like we’re barely underway when the bus pulls over in the town of Andahuaylillas.  This little town is famous for The Church of San Pedro Apostol de Andahuaylillas, which has been called the “Sistine Chapel of the Andes,” or even the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas.”  It was built by the Jesuits in the 1500’s and like so many other Spanish buildings it was built on top of a preexisting Inca structure.  In this case, this Christian church was built on top of a huaca – a sacred place.  A bit ironic, but in fact probably quite deliberate on the part of the Spanish.

We are not terribly impressed with the exterior of this little church but when we get inside we immediately understand the Sistine Chapel reference.  Every square inch of every surface is covered with murals, silver, gold-leaf or mirrors. .  And the artist was quite definitely not Da Vinci.  Or maybe it was Da Vinci - only on hallucinogens. 

Actually a large group of artisans contributed to the adornment of this church over a period of more than a century.  The interior of the church was decorated throughout the 1600’s and 1700’s by teams of itinerant local artists.  Murals were an effective way to reach the local population.  Most of the local people were illiterate and many didn’t speak Spanish.  Quechua, the language of the Incas, was the language spoken by most of the population and is still the primary language in many parts of Peru today.  So since the church couldn’t reach its audience with spoken or written words, a picture was worth a thousand words, a mural was worth a million words, and an entire church filled with murals was worth….well you get the idea.

While the church now contains numerous framed paintings on canvas, the original artwork was entirely painted on the walls.  The first mural we observe as we enter the church is a huge scene with a cast of millions depicting the battle between Heaven and Hell.  The vast multitudes in the mural seem to be oblivious to the battle, but as they go about their daily routine, they are surrounded by devils and angels duking it out for their souls.  For any uninitiated non-Christian entering the church, it would certainly serve as a conversation piece and would undoubtedly initiate a few questions. 

The entire ceiling of the nave is painted in red, dark blue and gold-leaf geometric diamond shapes with a floral motif.  It reminds me a lot of an M. C. Escher etching, only on a grand scale. 

The interior of the church is decorated with so much chromatically and emotionally overwhelming art, that after a while I am longing for a blank wall so I can rest my eyes.  But no, there is no rest for the weary sinner in this church. 

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the church, so I’m not able to capture my visual experience.  There are a few interior shots here, but they hardly do justice to the experience of seeing it live.
The Church of San Pedro Apostol de Andahuaylilla
Artwork Around Church Entrance
Huaro

After maybe only another fifteen minutes on the bus, we stop again, this time at the village of Huaro to visit another church – this one is The Church of San Juan Bautista, similar to the Andahuaylillas church in that it was built by Jesuits in the 1500’s. Also, like the other church, this one is filled with murals.  Over the years since the church was built, church officials commissioned local artists to paint murals and decorate the church.  When a new composition would be painted, the artist would simply paint over the top of a preexisting one.  This continued, layer after layer, until the last works were painted in 1802 by Tadeo Escalante.  Escalante, a local artist who descended from both Incans and Europeans, covered over ten thousand square feet of wall and ceiling surfaces with biblical scenes in explicit and gaudy detail:  Salvation, damnation, ascension, rapture, angels, devils, and the urgent need for Christianity to save the collective mortal soul of humanity.  While this church is similar to the Andahuaylillas church in theme and the enormous quantity of the art, there is perhaps a more unified feeling in this church since the bulk of the art is by one prodigious person.  Escalante followed a school of Peruvian art called “The Cusco School.”  One of the distinctive features of this school was the representation of Roman Catholic saints in the image of indigenous Peruvians.  That style is obviously represented in the murals in Huaro and it was a perfect style for Escalante to follow since it allowed him to remain true to both branches of his heritage. 

Once again, we do all of our photography outside since cameras are not allowed in the church.  In addition to our photographs, Kathy does a nice sketch of the church.

Kathy's Rendering of The Church of San Juan Bautista in Huarao
Raqchi

After spending the first half of the morning visiting Spanish churches, our late morning stop at Raqchi is to tour ruins from the earlier Inca era.  It is interesting to remember though, that most of these ruined Incan buildings were built just a little over a hundred years before the Spanish churches we had just visited. 

Archeologists have found evidence that there was a village on this site prior to the Inca expansion, but it was during the Inca period that it grew to the large and prominent outpost it was when the Spanish arrived.

According to Inca myths, the great creator god, Wiracocha, came to this region but the people who lived there didn’t recognize him and attacked him.  In response, Wiracocha made fire fall from the sky to burn the land.  The people went to Wiracocha and begged his forgiveness, so he extinguished the fires and then revealed his true identity to the people.  They built a shrine on the spot where he stood and from that point on they worshipped him and brought him offerings.

In the late 1400’s the emperor Huayna Capac traveled through, noticed the shrine and asked about it.  When the local people explained the story of Wiracocha, he was so impressed that he dictated that a much larger place of worship be built here.

The Temple of Wiracocha was a huge rectangular two-story building measuring over 300 feet long by over 80 feet wide, constructed of adobe on a foundation of high Inca stonework.  It was the largest known building ever constructed by the Incas.  In addition to the temple there were eight rectangular buildings around a courtyard – these may have provided lodging for travelers or perhaps they were barracks.  There were also 220 circular buildings which very likely were storehouses.  The entire complex is surrounded by a perimeter wall about two and a half miles in length.  Just beyond the wall is a dry moat to make the complex even more defensible.  The nearby hillsides have been terraced for crops and include irrigation channels.  There is a spring that runs through the complex and it has been enlarged to form a pool near the temple. 

The Spanish, of course, did their best to destroy all of this, which is why the churches we have just visited are extant and this complex, a mere 100 years older, is in ruins. 

We do our best to see this huge site in the small time we’ve been allotted.  The enormous temple is intact enough for us to appreciate its scale.  The roof and interior are gone, but much of the exterior adobe walls are still standing.  Preservationists have put terra cotta roof tiles on top of the walls to protect them from rain.  Many of the storage structures are still partially intact, some of the perimeter wall is standing as well, and of course the terraces remain.  The courtyard is now filled with tourist stalls and while one could view them as tawdry, they are no doubt an important part of the local economy.  I buy a ceramic soap dish inscribed with the Southern Cross from one of the vendors.

Exterior Wall of Temple of Wiracocha at Raqchi

Storehouses

Temple to Wirachocha
La Raya Pass

We have been gradually gaining altitude during our entire trek and by the time we stop at the town of Sicuani for lunch we’ve reached 12000 feet.  After lunch our ascent becomes more rapid and when we stop at La Raya Pass, we’ve reached over 14000 feet – the high point in our journey.  The pass is a watershed, with water flowing in one direction to the Sacred Valley and in the other direction to Lake Titicaca.  The mountain scenery here is as breathtaking as the altitude.  We drink in the view but we are also distracted by the ubiquitous vendors selling tourist stuff.  I’m pretty set on posing Madeline for a picture with a woman and her llama and lamb.  Unfortunately, everybody else wants a picture with her too, so the line is long, the time is short and I totally fail in this endeavor.  Kathy, meanwhile is drawn in by several vendors selling yarn.  She’s captivated by the beautiful colors and amazed by how cheap it is.  She also runs out of time due to her indecision regarding what use she would put the yarn to and how much she should buy.  After the fact she admits that there was really no way to determine the fiber content and that it could have all been acrylic for all she knew – the standard problem with yarn and fabrics here.  I could say with certainty that the lamb and llama posing with the woman were garbed in 100% wool but when the fiber isn’t directly attached to their bodies, it becomes anybody’s guess. 

Scenic View of Mountains at La Raya Pass
Pukara

We reach Pukara around 3:00, and continue to fall back in time.  The museum at this last stop before Puno contains local artifacts that are older than anything we’ve seen today.  While it was merely an outlying province under the Incas, Pukara was a large population center in the Late Formative Period (500 BC- AD 200).  It covered nearly 250 acres at its peak and was home to thousands of people.  The fact that Pukara dominated or at least traded with a large region is evidenced today by frequent discovery of pottery in the Pukara style over wide areas of Peru and Chile.

Pukara pottery is unique because of its style and the production techniques that were used to make it. The pottery varies in color from dark red to brown and is painted yellow, black, grey or red decorations set apart by narrow lines carved in the pottery.

Today, Pukara is still renowned for its pottery.  After we’d been in Peru for a while we started to notice the two small bulls that seemed to be on top of the roof of every house.  It turns out that these bulls are ceramic, are made by artisans in Pukara and are called “The Two Little Bulls of Pukara” or just “The Pukara Bulls.”  These bulls are usually displayed along with a cross, small vessels for holding chicha or coca water, and sometimes a Peruvian flag or other iconic items.  The significance of these ornaments and their history has turned out to be difficult for me to sleuth out.  Every source seems to have a different and sometimes contradictory story. 

Here’s my version of the truth on this subject.  Please don’t take this as the definitive truth.  One source, after discussing this very topic, stated that when he is in a foreign place and encounters an unfamiliar custom, he asks the first passerby about it and then accepts that person’s explanation as the truth.  He emphasizes that it is important never to ask more than one person, because he may encounter disagreement and then he’s stuck doing further research.  My approach differs slightly in that I have looked at several sources and when there is disagreement, I have chosen the one I like best.  So here’s my truth:

These bull figurines are placed on the roof to bring good luck, to insure bountiful crops and fertile livestock, and to bring general prosperity to those who live within the house.  They are often given as house warming presents.

The tradition supposedly goes back to the Incas, thus it predates the Spanish and Christianity.  Obviously if that is the case, the cross, which is an ever-present part of every display, would have been added after the Spanish arrived.  Cattle, of course, arrived with the Spanish as well, so the bulls themselves couldn’t have been part of the preconquest arrangement. 

The Incas did use talismans called Illas.  Illas were small stylized alpacas carved in stone.  They were kept in the houses of herdsmen, wrapped in special fabric, given food and drink as offerings, and venerated as minor wacas or gods.  In return the Illas would engender the fecundity of the flock and provide protection.  Over time, apparently, the function of Illas expanded to include protection of crops, and then of dwellings. 

I suppose when Spanish Catholicism became predominant, anyone who wanted to continue the tradition of the Illas would have to do it in such a way that the Christian rulers would find acceptable.  Naturally a display containing a cross would put a patina of respectability on this dubious pagan tradition.  And as cattle became the de facto grazing animal, replacing alpacas, it would be natural for bulls to replace alpacas in these displays. 

Perhaps the Christianizing of this Inca custom was not even a blatant act of subterfuge, but simply a matter of continuing a life-long tradition by those who converted to this new religion.  Religion as it is practiced today in Peru today is Christianity flavored with the Inca religion that existed there before it arrived.  A prime example of this blend of religions is right across the street from the museum in Pukara.  Santa Isabel Church, an old Spanish church built in 1767 is protected by a wrought iron fence.  It is further protected by a perimeter of pillars - each pillar is topped with little ceramic bulls.  Beyond religion, Inca elements show through the European overlay in Peruvian language, customs, cuisine, and mode of dress and probably all other aspects of Peruvian culture.  This is almost surprising considering the time and effort the Spanish put into trying to erase all of it.

"Two Little Bulls of Pukara" on a Rooftop
Bulls Around Santa Isabel Church in Pukara
One of the Santa Isabel Bulls
Puno

We arrive at Terminal Terrestre, the Puno bus station around 5:30 and take a cab to our hotel, the Hotel Casona Colon Inn, a very nice, quaint, and historic hotel with a strange and quirky name. 

This paragraph is entirely a digression about the hotel’s name.  If you wish to continue with the last bit of narrative for this blog post you may skip this paragraph entirely, but I really wonder about the unfortunate name.  When I look at the English and Spanish translations of the hotel’s website, the name is the same, so this is not a case of some sort of mistranslation from Spanish to English.  So what are they trying to tell us?  Hotel and Inn are both English words and they both mean the same thing.  Casona is essentially the Spanish version of Hotel.  So far we’ve been told that this is a hotel.  That leaves Colon.  Colón, in Spanish is the last name of Christopher Columbus, i.e. Cristóbal Colón.  But this word has no tilde – so this word is English and means "large intestine", and this, literally is the “Hotel Hotel Large Intestine Hotel.”  It really is very nice, quaint and historic!  Maybe I’m missing something on the name.

Our first impression of Puno:  It seems more modern than Cusco – the streets are wider, and the buildings are newer.  But it also lacks Cusco’s charm – the streets are wider and the buildings are newer.  Even though Puno is in the mountains, it sits on a plateau, so it’s flat, thus there are none of the hilly cobblestone streets like we encountered in Cusco.  But of course Puno does have Lake Titicaca, the vast high altitude lake stretching westward from Puno for miles and miles.  In general, Puno is much less touristy than Cusco.  There aren’t throngs of tourists filling up the streets, nor are there throngs of street vendors trying to sell stuff to tourists.  It also seems like there are fewer people here that speak English than Cusco – perhaps also related to fewer North American tourists.  We aren’t able to get impressions beyond our first ones since evening is coming and we need to get an early start tomorrow for our excursion across Titicaca to visit some of its islands.

We have a late dinner in the hotel restaurant, which is every bit as quaint and historic as the hotel, with delicious food, and an endearingly sweet waiter who does not speak English.  We really don’t have too much trouble communicating our order, but the trouble comes when he tries to be conversational.  I do need to point out that while his English vocabulary is small, our combined Spanish vocabulary is even smaller.  We are stymied for a while about one question he asks us, but finally figure out it is, “Where are you from?”  “Oh! We’re from the US,” we tell him.  He seems confused and asks, “Where are you from?”  “The US,” we say, “The United States.”  He pauses, then asks, “Where are you from?”  Maybe he wants to know where in the United States.  “Minnesota,” we offer.  A look of confusion.  “Minnesota….Center of the country in the north.”  I draw a map in the air with my finger. “Northern Midwest.  By Canada.”  He brightens.  “Canada?” he ventures.  “Yes, right across the border – very cold in the winter.  Brrrrr!”  He smiles and leaves.  I’m sure we look  mildly confused.  What was that all about?  Our looks of mild confusion disappear immediately when he returns and they are replaced by looks of utter and complete confusion as he happily plants a small Canadian flag in the center of our table then wanders away with a smile on his face.  I look around the dining room and realize that several other tables have small national flags as centerpieces.  Over there next to the wall are the Brazilians, and a couple tables over sit the French, and here we are, the happy Canucks, having a nice dinner at our Maple Leaf festooned table. 

But it is a nice dinner.  And it is a lovely, quaint and historic hotel.  And our waiter, actually, is competent, friendly, and very, very memorable.

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