Peru
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Another day of travel for us. We left Cusco by 1st class bus for Puno on Lake Titicaca. The bus was about half full, which made for more comfortable travel. It wasn’t especially first class though (the bus toilet stunk). Peru’s roads aren’t bad. We had smooth pavement almost the entire 7-hour trip. The route is though the high Andes with one pass at 4300 meters. It was snowing when we stopped at that point for photos.
Most
of the mountains are barren and beige. This isn’t the rainy
season so most vegetation is dead. On the Cusco side of the
pass there was a river to follow, lots of small towns and
constant numbers of small farms with lots and lots of
livestock. Most animals are accompanied by a person who is
sitting and watching. After the pass, the spaces became more
vast. Some plains were huge, always backed by peaks, some of
them snow capped.
The buildings are all made of adobe. Which adds more brown to the landscape. Everywhere you see bricks stacked to dry. In places that there wasn’t fieldstone, the fences were also made of the brick. Most homes have an attached corral area, which I assume is for the animals at night. I don’t imagine there are many predators but poachers, probably. There seems to be a sanitation program because almost everyone had a green outhouse. Electric lines didn’t reach very many of the homes. Almost every stretch of road had some small structures in varying distances from it.
The
countryside was quite enjoyable to watch and I was happy that
we weren’t flying. It wasn’t until we made it to Juliaca, the
closest city with an airport to Puno, that I grew tired of the
journey. I think all the tourists on the bus grew nervous when
we entered it. I’ve never seen such a worthless looking town.
It was full of unimproved streets and sections of brown brick
buildings under construction. The look on AD’s and DW’s face
over the place was horror. Fortunately it wasn’t our stop.
Puno really didn’t look much better, other than it’s on the
Lake. We are staying at a 3 star, the Hotel Italia. Frommers
had recommended it and it is quite nice.
Puno had more tourists than it appeared as we arrived. This is the stopping point for tours on the Lake. We will make a few day trips before heading to LaPaz. We walked the one pedestrian street to find dinner and play some cribbage. Taking a cue from Judie Briscoe, we always take our leftovers and hand them out to begging children. If we are out of food, we buy something and give them that food -- never money.
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