From Cusco to Puno along the Sun Route

From Cusco to Puno along the Sun Route

Visiting Lake Titicaca in Puno, PeruEach morning at 7:30am, buses leave Cusco for Puno. While some are direct trips, others follow the ‘Sun Route’ and offer guided stops along the way, where one can enjoy Incan ruins, colonial art, prehistoric history, scenic landscapes, and an Andean buffet. With the added visits, the journey takes about 9 hours total to cover 250 miles, and it’s available in the reverse as well, from Puno to Cusco.

The first stop, at 8:30am, is in the small town of Andahuaylillas, to visit an adobe church is known as the Sistine Chapel of America. Its humble exterior hides an interior where every wall, niche, and ceiling beam is ornately decorated in the baroque style. Locals volunteer to guard the church in shifts to protect its gold and silver.

San Pedro Church in AndahuaylillasSan Pedro Church in AndahuaylillasSan Pedro Church in Andahuaylillas

An hour and a half later, there is a stop at the Raqchi Archeological Site, also known as the Temple of Wiracocha. These Incan ruins Raqchi Archeological Ruins in Peruwere once a primary control point along the famed and extensive Inca road system and include the temple and a nearby spring and series of pools that could have been used for rituals, what appears to have been a lodging house for travelers, and other structures whose probable uses are still in dispute among those who believe that there are either administrative, storage, or military structures. Whatever its use, the site was well-protected by a huge exterior wall, parts of which still remain.

Woman with llama and sheep at La Raya LookoutBuffet lunch site in Sicuani, along the Sun Route from Cusco to PunoBuffet lunch site in Sicuani, along the Sun Route from Cusco to Puno

Around 12:10, there is a buffet lunch stop in Sicuani. The bus reaches the trip’s highest point, Abra La Raya (La Raya Pass) at 2:15pm, and you have the opportunity to walk around and take pictures at the lookout. At 15,000 feet above sea level, you’ll like be feeling the altitude.

The final stop is at the small Pucara Lithic Stone statue at the Pucara Lithic Museum near Puno, PeruMuseum at 3:30pm, which will take you as far back as 11,000 BC.

An hour and a half later, at 5pm, the bus reaches its destination and descends into Puno, with Lake Titicaca rising into view. It is from the waters of Lake Titicaca that the mythical Manco Capac rose. He made his way to Cusco to found the empire of the Incas, the children of the sun. The route, long-considered sacred, is known as the Sun Route and is the one that you will have just completed…

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