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| Puno to Cusco bus rest stop |
On arriving in Cusco we caught a taxi to our accommodation for the night, a most impressive large family room in the WalkOn Inn.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Puno - Cusco
From Iain: July 24 - We traveled by public bus from Puno to Cusco, passing through some pretty high country along the way.
The journey was supposed to take six hours but ended up taking longer because our bus was stopped on several occasions by protesting teachers. We were a little alarmed the first time this happened since we did not know what was going on. A large group of men had blocked the road on the outskirts of a small town forcing the bus to stop. They then surrounded the bus and began painting slogans on the sides and front and back of the bus. When the bus started up again some of the protesters became angry (perhaps the bus was moving towards those still blocking its path) and as the bus finally pulled away some of them hurled their paint cans at the bus, hitting the upper windows where we were sitting. For some reason, when a Peruvian man in a seat across the aisle from us told us they were teachers we didn't feel quite so anxious. How violent could a teacher get? After enduring a few more such attacks the remainder of the journey passed without incident, although Tanya chanced a riot inside the bus when she covered up the TV in our section so Bethany and Sierra would not have to endure any more of an appalling, ultraviolent Mel Gibson movie (as it happened, none of the other passengers seemed too fussed about watching this).
On arriving in Cusco we caught a taxi to our accommodation for the night, a most impressive large family room in the WalkOn Inn.
On arriving in Cusco we caught a taxi to our accommodation for the night, a most impressive large family room in the WalkOn Inn.
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In 1986 the teachers were demonstrating in La Paz. At first it appeared to be a big, disorganized parade with banners and horn bands playing. Then we saw the military on the rooftops with their guns drawn, and I was finally able to translate the flags and posters.
ReplyDeleteA few days later we hired a guide to take us out to the most marvelous ruins. She was a lovely woman, and we discovered that she was a teacher. With our limited Spanish, we tried to share information and philosophy with her. That was when we discovered that she earned a salary equivalent to $25 a month. We thought we misunderstood her, so we continued to talk to her about it. It was indeed, true. So she guided when she could and lived with her husband's family just to keep body and soul together. And she was pregnant. That day and meeting her still haunts me.
MaryAnn