?> {"id":4222,"date":"2010-11-10T23:14:45","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T04:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/?p=4222"},"modified":"2010-11-21T22:22:02","modified_gmt":"2010-11-22T03:22:02","slug":"day-6-sillustani-and-puno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/2010\/11\/day-6-sillustani-and-puno\/","title":{"rendered":"Peru Day 6 \u2013 Sillustani and Puno"},"content":{"rendered":"
We had a super early morning flight out of Arequipa to Juliaca. Our flight was at 6:10 am and originally we were supposed to leave for the airport at 4:10 am but luckily our guide was able to get our boarding passes ahead of time, which bought us some extra time. We left for the airport around 5 am, which meant we still had to get up at 4 am to make sure we had everything packed and ready to go.<\/p>\n
Needless to say we were pretty exhausted when we got to the airport but we saw a lot of people from our Colca Canyon tour group there so we had a good time chatting with everyone. We were the only ones headed to Puno, while everyone else was off to Cusco. Our hotel had packed us breakfast boxes since we left before the buffet started but we only drank the peach juice and left the ham and cheese sandwiches and yogurt behind.<\/p>\n
The flight itself was less than an hour, and we had barely fallen asleep before it was time to get off the plane. We collected our luggage and waited for our transfer from Juliaca to Puno, where we would be staying. And we waited. And waited. Apparently the tour company had forgotten about us. No one knew we were coming. Luckily we met a tour guide from a different company who called our tour company for us, and eventually after waiting for an hour, we were picked up by someone from our tour company who happened to be dropping off another client.<\/p>\n
It was sort of a frustrating experience for us but we shook it off and continued on our tour. The drive from Juliaca to Puno included a stop at the Sillustani graves along the way. The site is a pre-Incan burial ground that was used by the Chollas, a group of Aymaras who were conquered by the Incas. The place was so sacred though that the Incans respected the tombs of the Chollas, since they were for royalty. Now the site includes both Incan and Chollan graves. The tombs are called “chullpas” and are tall, round towers. The opening faces the east, and inside the tombs they found mummies of royals who were buried in fetal position, along with their servants.<\/p>\n