Day 6 - Puno - June 15th

We left Cusco today and flew to Juliaca. The next 2 days we’ll be at 12,500 feet or higher elevation. When we arrived in Juliaca, we got on a bus and drove about an hour where we stopped at a burial grounds. They built towers on top of a hill, and would mummify the people in the fetal position, then put them in the towers. The wealthy or royal people would have the tallest towers and would even have their servants killed and mummified with them, with their gold and silver. They believed they would be reincarnated and wanted their servants and gold to go with them. There were tall towers, around 30 feet, and others around 5 feet. The poor people were buried in stone cylinders underground, and was marked on the ground by a ring of stones. That whole hill top was covered with towers and rings of stones. Only one tower had been excavated. The Peru government won’t allow any outsiders to come and excavate the area. We even saw bones protruding from the ground. After we left the burial site, we stopped at a local house in the area. They had several llamas and alpacas and guinea pigs. The house had a wall around it and there were 3 buildings in the complex. One building was the bedroom, one the kitchen and one a guest house. Our bus ride took us to Puno, where our hotel is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We had dinner at the hotel and then had a lecture from Bernell on the god’s of the Incas.