Cusco to Puno (Lake Titicaca) 17th July

MONDAY 17th Cusco to Puno

6am alarm. Upstairs to the sixth floor for breakfast.

Meeting downstairs at 07:30 to transfer to the bus station.

Farewell Cusco.  By far the nicest city that we have visited so far.

Bus departs at 08:30. 7 hours with one stop to Puno.

Our tour guide had teamed up with a guide running a G Adventures tour and hired a bus for this trip.

The landscape changed from green hills back to brown and the valleys became desert again similar to our first week of travelling.

The valleys also widened out to become some large plains however we did pass a couple of mountains with snow on them.

Arrived at Puno at about 4:00pm. We were afforded excellent views of Lake Titicaca as we descended into the city.

Transferred from the bus station to another bus and arrived at the hotel within one block of the city square to check in. Nice room and warm.

The group met downstairs 30 minutes later and we went for an orientation walk followed by dinner.

Our guide took us to a Charcoal chicken restaurant.  It was one of the nicest, best value, meals I've had. Apart from the ones on the Inca Trail which will be very hard to surpass.  Dinner consisted of a quarter chicken, some fries and two slices of tomato washed down with a beer.

After dinner we bought some Agua Florida, an alcohol based liquid that one pours onto the hands, rub them together and then inhale. It goes right up into the sinuses.  Most people cough when they do it. It is meant to help in keeping altitude sickness at bay.

Lindsey isn't feeling great and has some symptoms hence the purchase.

Puno is at 3800m, about 400m higher than Cusco but Machu Picchu was only about 2500m and we noticed a shortness of breath once we returned to Cusco.

Off to bed at about 10pm having sat in the reception area for two hours where the Internet worked the best.  I made an effort to load enough photos onto Google Photos to allow me to catch up on this blog.

Alarm set for 6:30 for a 7:30 departure tomorrow.