Sunday May 12. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Cusco and pack up everything to relocate to Puno which is on the northwest shore of Lake Titicaca. More unfortunately, our means of transportation was our now 12 person bus with the luggage stacked up at the back and spilling onto the back seats. That in itself would have been fine (except in the case of a rapid stop). Sadly though the trip was scheduled to take seven hours and the roads were less than ideal. Imagine a paved road with 1/2” of asphalt that has been beaten down by relentless traffic over the years (there’s only one road to Puno from Cusco). It felt like we were on a gravel road as one might find leading to a lakeside cottage. Except it went on for hours and hours! There was the occasional respite but not much.
Puno is at the southern end of the Peruvian high plains and as such you could see the road stretch for miles in a straight line. With the odd exception where one could see snow capped mountains, the surrounding foothills offered little in the way of distraction which made the journey seem even longer. We did see herds of wild llamas grazing by the road but that was it.
Puno, on the other hand is a relatively large city (138,000) with a huge percentage of the vehicles being tuk tuks. These motorcycle cabs dart in and out of traffic, when it’s moving, and all credit to their drivers for somehow avoiding each other and any other metal objects.
We finally reached our hotel, played cards, had dinner and did our usual exhausted free fall into bed (having just learned the Raptors won on the last shot of the game). Tomorrow an eclectic day on Lake Titicaca begins with a 6 a.m. wake up. Oh yeah.
The Bennetts On Tour 