2005 10 Peru – Day 6

We leave on time and start our journey today, it will end along the shore of Lake Titicaca in the town of Puno. We had many stops along the way for snacks and water as we slowly weave our way through the picturesque countryside. We stop at a few spots for some great pictures with some stops being as high as 4000 Meters.

We can see llamas, aplacas and vicuna in the distance.

I zoom in for a picture.

Most of my group in front of our bus

We also had a chance to buy some souvenirs and a chance to drink more coca tea. Coca leaves are recommended for the high altitude as it somehow helps the body cope with the symptoms of it. Many of the group are not feeling that well; so far I have been feeling fine. We ended up seeing many Llamas, Alpacas and the scarce Vicuna that sometimes are close enough to the road to take pictures.

A view from one of the stops we make along the way.

Many booths are set up to sell to the tourists.

A view from the bus.

The road to Puno reaches 15000 ft in places.

As we pass the town of Julica we pick up our guide for the next few days at a road crossing. Rueben was just sitting along the side of road waiting for our bus to come along; in the end we all enjoyed his company. Our next stop was a local farmhouse where we sat down to eat our boxed lunches that were prepared for us back at our hotel in Arequipa for $5.00 U.S. It was a great way to see how the people actually lived. They let us wonder around there housing area if we wished. We had a chance to try out the local food they prepared for us and if we had any food left over from our boxed lunch we simple left it behind for the family. The prepared food was mostly whole vegetables including whole small potatoes cooked in the open stove. They tasted great and I had my share of them along with a taste of the cheese. There were many things to buy from the owners of the farm house and in the end they did great business as the group ended up buying a few things.

Next stop was some ruins that are considered a funeral site. As with most of our stops on this tour, there were always merchants waiting to sell us something along the way.

At this particular stop I ended up buying an alpaca sweater for 30 Sols ($10.75 CDN). I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be worth back home! The visit to the site with our guide ended up being a quick one with some bad weather coming in. We had to make a quick dash for the bus before the tour was completed.

It was a reletively easy walk but still took a little effort.

Some of the site has been restored.

The weather is comfortable when the sun is out but when the storm came in, I thought I was back home in Canada. As we drove away, the rain turned to sleet and the whole country side turned white with a layer of ice. Of course, the sun came out and it was gone in no time, a little unusual weather for this part of Peru.

Our first sight of Puno.

The storm has followed us to Puno.

This area gets a lot more rain than Arequipa.

We arrive in the town of Puno and check into our hotel at around 4:30. Most of us go for a walk to exchange some money and make a few phone calls. I ended up buying a phone card to phone home which ended up costing me 10 sols; it would let me talk for 34 minutes back to Canada! For a little more than 3 dollars it was a bargain to say the least. We find Puno a town a little more old fashioned than Arequipa and probably gave us a better idea of what Peru is realistically like. It's not as safe to walk around here and we are told to stick to the main streets and look out for each other.