Day 21 (Saturday 3rd December 2016)
Arequipa to Puno 304 kms
We thought being Saturday it might be a quiet drive to the outskirts. Wrong! It was traffic everywhere, mini buses stopping to pick up passengers, cars darting in and out, people walking in front of cars, people taking photos from the road....absolute chaos.
It was only 80kms to the first Time Control but due to the heavy city traffic and then enormous numbers of trucks making the climb up (over 3,000 mts) to our destination of Parahuasi we were a minute late so straight on with no time for coffee. Many cars were much later.
Climbing steadily to an altitude of 4,400 mts there were huge numbers of petrol tankers and large convoys of trucks (the biggest we saw was a convoy of ten trucks).
On the flatter ground there were shepherds (many women) tending sheep and llama flocks.
A small number of guanacos ran across the road in front of us. There was a lake with flamingoes but they were too distant for us to clearly see them.
The Regularity for the day (45kph) was Santa Lucia, a narrow gravel track around farms, tiny bridges to cross and watch for wandering animals. As we have no speedo or Halda (broken speedo cable) and dust covering the GPS we were too fast at the finish.
The hotel was now 60kms away but first there were lots of gullies in the tarmac road, and the villages of Manazo and Vilque. At Vilque there was a ceremony going on in the town square (think it was a wedding) with lots of music and a marching band.
Leaving Vilque it was 30 kms of very broken tarmac. Arriving in Puno the route brought us to a very steep downward road which we had no hope of getting down. The GPS then took us through yet another congested area with a market in full swing. Eventually we arrived at our hotel overlooking Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.
Our impression of Peru is that it is much poorer than Chile or Argentina but trying hard to catch up.
It is certainly more colourful. The women stand out in their multi-coloured gathered skirts, bright tops, shawls around their shoulders which are used to carry babies or goods, and their bowler hats.
Arequipa to Puno 304 kms
We thought being Saturday it might be a quiet drive to the outskirts. Wrong! It was traffic everywhere, mini buses stopping to pick up passengers, cars darting in and out, people walking in front of cars, people taking photos from the road....absolute chaos.
It was only 80kms to the first Time Control but due to the heavy city traffic and then enormous numbers of trucks making the climb up (over 3,000 mts) to our destination of Parahuasi we were a minute late so straight on with no time for coffee. Many cars were much later.
Climbing steadily to an altitude of 4,400 mts there were huge numbers of petrol tankers and large convoys of trucks (the biggest we saw was a convoy of ten trucks).
On the flatter ground there were shepherds (many women) tending sheep and llama flocks.
A small number of guanacos ran across the road in front of us. There was a lake with flamingoes but they were too distant for us to clearly see them.
The Regularity for the day (45kph) was Santa Lucia, a narrow gravel track around farms, tiny bridges to cross and watch for wandering animals. As we have no speedo or Halda (broken speedo cable) and dust covering the GPS we were too fast at the finish.
The hotel was now 60kms away but first there were lots of gullies in the tarmac road, and the villages of Manazo and Vilque. At Vilque there was a ceremony going on in the town square (think it was a wedding) with lots of music and a marching band.
Leaving Vilque it was 30 kms of very broken tarmac. Arriving in Puno the route brought us to a very steep downward road which we had no hope of getting down. The GPS then took us through yet another congested area with a market in full swing. Eventually we arrived at our hotel overlooking Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.
Our impression of Peru is that it is much poorer than Chile or Argentina but trying hard to catch up.
It is certainly more colourful. The women stand out in their multi-coloured gathered skirts, bright tops, shawls around their shoulders which are used to carry babies or goods, and their bowler hats.
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