The Journey to Puno

Unfortunately I couldn't upload any pics to this blog with the Internet connection we had - sorry!

After a couple of days recovery from the Inca Trail, we left Cuzco and took the bus to Puno on Tuesday. The last evening in Cuzco was lovely, as our favourite San Blas square looked beautiful in the evening light.

The journey to Puno was an experience of contradictions. We had a very comfortable bus for the 10 hour trip, which included a couple of stops at Inca sites and a lunch buffet on the way, and yet the main new thing we saw was how hard it is for the people in the countryside. There were beautiful long landscapes and mountains rising up, yet many settlements along the way had half-finished houses built of mud with no roof. There were middle-aged women chasing after cows and sheep in the fields, and in the small villages we came to, the main street was always quite decrepit and worn out. The sight of an ancient woman begging is something I won't forget quickly.

I didn't take many pictures - it seemed intrusive and rude to do so - but again we were surprised at how insensitive some people could be, snapping away at beggars or street sellers in traditional clothing. It seemed ghoulish and disrespectful to us.

Along the way, we had a scare when it was announced that the locals in one town had put on a strike and blocked the road because they wanted the government to complete a road from their town to another key city. The guide told us "the Peruvian government normally takes notice if such things happen." We were set for a 3-4 hour wait in the bus, but just as we arrived at the queue of trucks and tourist buses, the road was opened again. We drove past the poor crowd of people on the side of the road, again conscious of the contrast between our luxury and their relative poverty.

And yet, we see that the poverty is indeed relative. The street sellers are not malnutritioned - generally the opposite. The towns are brimming with Internet café's, print shops and places to add credit for mobile phones. Our impression is that the basics of food and shelter are relatively easily found but the lack is in terms of infrastructure. This became apparent as we arrived in Puno.

The reason we had come to Puno was because it is on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We had both known the name of that lake since we could remember, but were not sure why. In fact, it's one of the highest navigable lakes in the world, at 3800m above sea level. So we had expected a quite nice town ready to receive the inevitable tourists who would want the same as us. But we were quite shocked when the bus came into the city.

It seems a real mess, with roads in bad shape, houses simply thrown into place with no real plan, everything brown, almost no nice buildings at all. As we have walked around today, we tried to find some nice places in the city of 200,000 people, but almost completely failed. There are a couple of attractive squares, but the market is a total chaos, muddy and smelly (although the vegetables and other good looked very fresh) and the harbour area is the only saving grace. There has been some attempt to make the riverside a nice place to walk along, but unfortunately in places the smell from the dry bank with various rubbish gives a bad odour to the expensive walkway, leaving it almost deserted. The centre itself is really a non-place.

Altitude has continued to be a problem. 500 metres higher than Cuzco, I have often had to stop in the street and concentrate on breathing. After 2 weeks of similar experiences, we are looking forward to heading to Arequipa tomorrow, at a much lower level. Luckily, we didn't suffer as the two Aussie travellers we met last night. They explained how they both raced up one of the main mountains at Macchu Picchu and then simultaneously threw up as they reached the peak! Nevertheless, it is draining and we have felt lacking in energy ever since we came to such high altitude.

The saving grace is our hotel room. After our bad experiences in Cuzco, we have now decided to be a bit more careful with where we stay and a decent bed, non-smelling sheets and towels and hot water are our main requisites. Here in the Camino Real, we have all of these plus very friendly hotel staff, at a price of 22 Euros (20 GBP) per night.

We made the best of it and enjoyed the sunshine, drank wine and listened to music in a nice bar and sat in our hotel room watching freshly downloaded movies "Lost Boys" and "Dead Poets Society" on my little 9-inch screen laptop. On to Arequipa now, in hope of a more enjoyable time and more breath in what should be a nice city.