PUNO

Day 85 03.10.15

When we woke up it was still snowing and the snow had settled nicely on the mountain ranges and the little houses. Quite surreal to be honest and a rude awakening when you have to pop outside to the loo in the morning.

We proceeded with breakfast, which was one of the best I have had on the trip. Maybe the outside conditions added to that, but having trout and potatoes for breakfast was just the best thing we could have had – delicious!

We even took a bread roll and tried to capture every last drop of sauce left on the plate. That and a hot tea was just divine.

After breakfast it was time to head back to the main square and to say goodbye to Dora and the other lovely ladies. The snow on the little houses was cute, but we were happy to be back on the bus on our way back to a hotel and a hot shower.

We chose not to, but could have had a hot shower at Dora’s as she has a solar panel and with that heats her water (yes even her washing up tap has hot water!).

The yellow mountains now were just covered in white and looked completely different than the day before.

We said our goodbyes, took one last group photo and were off on the bus. We were hoping that the snow hadn’t settled on the roads too, as we were sure that our van didn’t have winter tires on…

We were happy that this wasn’t the case, and instead got to admire the snow-covered mountains at times.

We climbed back up to the highest point of the trip, (the 4910 metres) where of course more snow had fallen and not melted away. It is here that we had a little snowball fight up on a mountain, and where one of our group got to feel snow for the first time – these Australians :).

After the strenuous exercise (yes the snowball fight), which left us catching our breaths, we descended again and stopped at another little restaurant place for some tea and a sandwich. Avocado and chicken are just delicious as you can see :).

Here is a little photo of how these restaurants look from the inside, where everywhere you can buy clothes, scarves, hats etc. pretty much anything made from baby alpaca. It all looked very soft but I was still broke and had to wait for an ATM in Puno, to restock on Soles.

After the little stop we changed buses, said goodbye to our bus driver and temporary guide and headed onwards towards Puno. The landscape changed again, so that we saw more sandy areas, more rock formations and even though we were still in the mountains, we now were reaching the Altiplano, the high plains.

At some point we drove passed a little lagoon, where we could see flamingos grazing through the water looking for food. They were quite large animals, compared to the ones we had seen on the Galapagos.

We were glad for the little stops we made along the way, be it solely for stretching the legs, or for a much-needed bathroom break and everywhere you saw the women selling their stuff.

We were getting closer and closer to Puno and lake Titicaca, but this lagoon is completely separate from lake Titicaca. The Government are now trying to use these lagoons to provide water for the lower communities, building different channels and pipes to redirect the water downwards. At this lagoon we were 4,444m above sea level.

As we now drove onwards we passed more and more communities and with that we could see stones covered in painting with different electoral slogans. Some ranged back to ’98 and were nearly completely faded; others were for the elections in 2015 / 2016.

It was getting more rural, and we saw more farming villages along the road. The road was extremely bumpy as it was being used by large heavy trucks, trying to avoid a different town where there were more controls. This meant that the road was broken and unfinished in many parts causing us to be shaken around quite a bit. I was starting to get a bit of a headache, probably from the altitude, and the constant moving around didn’t help with that. Additionally our bus had little air refreshers tied to its ventilation at the back, which had a very strong sweet smell. I think that too added to me not feeling 100%.

We finally reached Puno, and got to take a picture from higher up. Puno is not really a pretty town. Many unfinished houses, it seems like it has grown too fast for the town to handle.

We reached the hotel and I was extremely happy as I just needed to lie down and enjoy some peace and quiet. We did a little tour around town, looking at different plazas and staying at a little bakery.

Here we had lovely empanadas, and rice pudding (milk rice) and just stayed there without the rest of the group, enjoying some “time alone”.

After probably an hour and a half, we moved to see the main square, which sported a lovely little church, a monument and some sculpted bushes.

Before heading back to the house we stopped over at a supermarket to buy new supplies for our next homestay. It was really overwhelming for me, since my headache was still going strong. I found this lovely little German jewel.