Casona Plaza Puno

... flock of tourists wandering around, nor the hostile hawkers trying to get you into their tour shop or to buy a cheap painting out of their folder on the street. Here was far more relaxed, and still had the historic and colonial vibe of that of Cusco. The clean streets are cobbled; there are many large cathedrals, monasteries and convents; there are 3 snow capped volcanoes, with an altitude of greater than 5000m above sea-level, watching over the city. It’s also much cheaper ...

... We tried to clean haggling tips from our euro friends, watching how they whine like the shop owners, but Puno folks don´t drop their prices a bit. It was frustrating but I managed to obtain leg warmers and a christmas ornament.

This morning we slept till 7 and tried to warm up from our cold room over breakfast. The music on tap today for breakfast was what Haether likened to a practice session for the 4th grade recorder chorus. We´re ...

... im sure were designed for mountains, not sand. Peddling in sand is so much work, and it doesn´t matter if you are going nicely downhill with momentum, ´cause as soon as you hit that sand you slow right down. Argh! Other useful lessons for riding in sand...don´t ever try and turn becaue you will just end up in the sand yourself, and don´t ever try and brake sharply for risk of a similar result.

Oh, and never be fooled that downhill ...

... of wild flowers out so it was a lovely walk.

On the way back to Chivay, there are a lot of lookouts an they all have market stalls and sometimes little girls with their traditional clothes and baby Llama's. Very cute. They will pose with you for 1 sol. The lookouts also provide great viewing of the terraces on the other side of the canyon. We had lunch in Chivay then drove the 3 hours back to Arequipa.

... la ora 12.40 (Peru este cu 8 ore in urma Bucurestiului). Ne-a agatat un negru mic, care ne-a dus la o agentie care vindea bilete (bineinteles, cu vreo 2-3 dolari mai mult decat la ghiseele oficiale). Ok, asta e. Hai sa cumparam bilete. Noi vrem la compania Cruz del Sur, ca am citit in Lonely Planet ca sunt cei mai buni. Pai au, dar pleca la 17 si ajung la 23 in Arequipa. Hmm...prea tarziu. Altceva? Pai da, la 15, compania Flores. Bun, vrem la astia. Da ...

... Cemetery, but the sky gets covered with black clouds and the cemetery on the shore of the Titicaca is not visible any longer. Nor is the shore of the lake itself, let alone the road back to Puno.

Somehow I manage to get to the hotel and start hoping tomorrow the weather will be better, as I'm planning to take a boat cruise to the Uros Islands on the Titicaca. And so the snow starts to fall.