To Puno

Thursday May 9th

                                                       

We had breakfast and then hit the road. We were only at about 4000 feet but in the next hourwe were at over 14000. Another great road. We are really out in the boonies now. There was road construction, a river we had to forge, long sections of dirt and curves that went up and up. For over 2 hours we climbed switchback after switchback. On top it is another world. We are above the tree line but there are little villages every few miles. They farm potatoes and other crops but you can’t see them. They climb up on the mountain sides and somehow find something of value. The towns were again spotless and the people were dressed again in more traditional clothes.

We were running out of gas so we found another station that filled us with buckets. A little 10 year old girl was helping. It was in a beautiful little town on the top of the world. They had church and a nice square. The people looked they had all came out of the past with all the traditional clothes. Jan and I went taking photos. The people are friendly but some did not want their photos taken. The kids were real cute. Our guidde said that there were many people there that had never seen a Gringo.

 We stayed at a high elevation the rest of the day. I looked like parts of Wyoming of New Mexico (except twice as high) with high plains, some high lakes, mountaoins around us and some straight road interrupted every few miles with switchbacks. We stayed at around 14,000 feet all afternoon. We found one sign for 4873 meters which is 16,000 feet.

We stopped at a town for lunch. These guys eat all day. While they ate I went for a walk in the town square, bought me two bananas and talked to the people and took photos. I love doing that. 

To get to Puno we had to go through Juliaca. Our guide told us that this is the ugliest city in the world. He might be right. He also said that driving through it is very dangerous. The traffic was heavy and completely out of control. Most of the streets were not paved and full of holes. We made is and continued to Puno.

Puno is at only 12,350 feet and we came out of the hills into town. It is on the shores of Lake Titcaca. It is a beautiful place. We have a nice hotel right in town. Tonight we have hot water and internet. I cannot feel the elevation effects at all. Jan however has a headache is real dizzy. That really added to the thrill of driving through Juliaca. She is resting and I am sure she will be okay. We have one more high day and high night.