Puno

We finally had a day where we weren't rushing around and seeing as much as possible. We left fairly early this morning and boarded a luxury bus for a 7 hour bus ride from Cusco to Puno and Lake Titicaca. Basically we were able to sleep, relax and Marc got some homework done. The only major stop we had was a site called Raqchi. This was the site of the Temple of Wiracocha. There was a pre-Inca/Inca settlement here. It was interesting to see a small village that the Inca had "conquered" or as Hector said, "Incorporated." It was cool to see the houses, granaries and temple.

After the long bus ride was finally over we explored Puno for a bit and went back to the hotel to relax. While we were at the hotel we kept hearing a cannon go off. From Marc's time spent in Spain, he suspected it was some kind of Saint's Day. When we were sufficiently hungry we went to get pizza for my mom's "birthday dinner." :)
As we were eating, there was a procession of people dressed up nice and doing a simple dance with a band playing and rattlers. It confirmed our suspicion that it was a religious celebration. After dinner we ran into Hector and he told us that everywhere around Peru there is a religious celebration going on as an excuse to get drunk and make trouble.
Tomorrow is our last full day of touring.