Cuzco to Puno



Today we had a long drive (almost 400km) from the valley of Cuzco south through the Altiplano to the city of Puno on lake Titicaca.
We were up at 6:30am and down for breakfast, finished packing, checked out and on to the bus at 8:00am. Our hotel in Cuzco, the Taypikala is on a very narrow street, so buses can't come to the door. We walk down a 1/2 block to a bigger street, and our luggage is brought down for us.
It takes a while to get out of Cuzco, as it is quite spread out. We are taking the Interoceanic highway, which connects Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. The route first takes us along a river valley, and is quite winding.This is an agricultural area, with lots of potato fields and livestock. Andreas points out some corrals on the hillsides. The sheep, llamas etc are put in these at night so the pumas won't attack them as they would if they were spread out. This area is the range of the pumas, but because they are nocturnal, we won't see any. At one point we pass a stream where there are some migrating flamingos. They aren't pink because they haven't been eating shrimp. We keep gaining altitude until we get to the high point at La Raya pass at over 4400 meters. There is a view of several glacier topped mountains. We stopped for lunch at a sort of truck stop, that had great coffee and delicious fresh made sandwiches. Karen & I both had the Alpaca with tomato and avocado. We had now reached the high plain between 2 mountain ranges. It is fairly flat and very arid. There is some cattle, lots of sheep and also some llamas. The towns get poorer as we travel south. We pass through the town of Juliaca, a very chaotic and poor looking city. Apparently it is well know as a black market city, and it's possible that it's a center for cocaine as well. Doesn't look appealing! About an hour later at 4pm we reach Puno, a smaller and much nicer town on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Our hotel the Casona Plaza has a colonial look to it, and is just a block from the main square. Karen and I go for a short walk along the pedestrian shopping street, and to another square where many people are enjoying the last of the sun.
We meet at 6pm to go out for dinner. Andreas takes us to a very nice restaurant on the main square. I have guinea pig (or cuy) confit which was fantastic. Tomorrow will be another busy day so we'll all turn in early.





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