Sillustani funeral tombs, Puno, Peru, and the more interesting modern day farm life.

10 March 2010,

First afternoon in Peru, at Puno.

I arrived in Puno, at about midday, found a hotel, had lunch, went on a tour to Sillustani.The tour had an unexpected and delightful extra....with visited a modern day rural compound of houses and storage buidlings.

Typical cluster / compound of homes in a rural area near Puno, Peru. Llamas and Alpacas out front.

Sillustani Funeral Tower, built by pre-Inca civilisations to put mummified bodies in. The bodies had gold with them, so the Spaniards ransacked the lot. The inside of the tombs were shaped like a womens´s uterus, something to do with rebirth perhaps. Don´t know how they lifted the bigblocks into place. Also the blocks are held like a jigsaw... they have shaped them to the curve and put a hole in one side and thing to go in the next bricks hole on the other side. (English has obviously escaped me!)

The rural folk put these cute ceramics on top of the buildings and gates to bring luck.

When we visited the rural house / settlement the guide showed us some local produce. We got to eat boiled potatoes with something like mud... apparently it´s healthy.

The people compound had a guinea pig compound. Don´t forget it´s one of the favourite foods here.

The gate archway. Clever, it´s designed to look like the sun and it´s placed together with just gravity to hold it.

Notes

Accommodation in Puno: Cielo Andino Hospedaje, private room with bath. $7, incl Breakfast and useof kitchen. ****

3 hour tour which took 4 hours $7. *****