Day 6 - Colca Valley to Puno
Today was transfer day. It was a beautiful morning and we set off at 7am to retrace our route of two days earlier past the highest point at 4910m. Today the clouds had cleared and we had an absolutely stunning view of the volcanoes with Sabancaya blowing out smoke while we watched. Snow the day before added to the enchantment of the scene. Neither of us felt as breathless as two days ago, so we must be acclimatising reasonably well.
The route back to the Pan American highway was clear and snowy and we saw rabbit-like viscacha.
We stopped again at the junction for an Inca tea and then turned left towards Puno. We crossed more of the altiplano with alpacas, llamas and vicunas and eventually the landscape changed and we began to see wetlands with flamingo, before we reached Lake Lagunillas, where we stopped to admire the fantastic views.
Then nearing Puno, we drove through Juliaca, home of our next airport, which has bad traffic and absolutely nothing to recommend it. Like all Peruvian towns, most buildings are unfinished.
Puno came as a surprise as it is on a hillside by Lake Titicaca. The part we saw was also pretty ugly, but our hotel is on a small island accessed by a causeway, with views on one side to the floating island and on the other to the town of Puno.
Our room wasn't ready so we said goodbye to Grace and our driver Maximo and sat in the extended bar area to eat our lunch box made by the last hotel. This hotel is very nice and an upgrade from our initial itinerary, but it has the smallest room we've had so far and has no coffee maker so a big come down from the fabulous hotel we left in the Colca Canyon. After getting our room, we set off to explore the immediate area at the other side of the causeway. It was great, we saw local people building houses, tending their land and even building boats. They invited us in for a look.
By 3.30pm, the weather was looking threatening, so we headed back to the hotel to sort out our stuff.
The route back to the Pan American highway was clear and snowy and we saw rabbit-like viscacha.
We stopped again at the junction for an Inca tea and then turned left towards Puno. We crossed more of the altiplano with alpacas, llamas and vicunas and eventually the landscape changed and we began to see wetlands with flamingo, before we reached Lake Lagunillas, where we stopped to admire the fantastic views.
Then nearing Puno, we drove through Juliaca, home of our next airport, which has bad traffic and absolutely nothing to recommend it. Like all Peruvian towns, most buildings are unfinished.
Puno came as a surprise as it is on a hillside by Lake Titicaca. The part we saw was also pretty ugly, but our hotel is on a small island accessed by a causeway, with views on one side to the floating island and on the other to the town of Puno.
Our room wasn't ready so we said goodbye to Grace and our driver Maximo and sat in the extended bar area to eat our lunch box made by the last hotel. This hotel is very nice and an upgrade from our initial itinerary, but it has the smallest room we've had so far and has no coffee maker so a big come down from the fabulous hotel we left in the Colca Canyon. After getting our room, we set off to explore the immediate area at the other side of the causeway. It was great, we saw local people building houses, tending their land and even building boats. They invited us in for a look.
By 3.30pm, the weather was looking threatening, so we headed back to the hotel to sort out our stuff.
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