Puno

May 13, 2025 to May 16, 2025

Tuesday the 13th of May 2025

We weren't expecting today's ride to be great and that's how it turned out. Just out of town the road became a four lane highway, albeit with a good shoulder, than ran straight and flat for twenty kilometers. Then it was a tough climb just over two hundred meters up to the hills above Puno where we had great views of Titicaca, ending up at just over 4000m before dropping down steeply into the city.

Up here at close to 4000m even the sheep wear warm clothing.

Looking down onto Puno and Lago Titicaca.

We have a very nice *** hotel booked for the next three nights - the Qelqatani. It is the first digs we have that rises above the level of basic since arriving in Peru. A block away from the main restaurant street, two blocks from the Plaza Mayor and three blocks from the Bolivian Consulate. We going to act like run of the mill foreign tourists for the next few days.

Wednesday the 14th of May 2025

Apart from a few day's rest, the important task here in Puno was to sort out visas for Bolivia. Apart from French Guyana for which we need a Schengen visa, suggesting that the French consider it part of Europe and not SouthAmerica (???), Bolivia is the only country in South and Central America for which we need a visa.

Our walk to the consulate took us past the attractive Plaza Mayor and the handsome cathedral.

The very helpful lady at the consulate took us through the process - online capturing of details and uploading of supporting documentation followed by paying a $30 US fee at a local bank - and two hours later we were back at the consulate. I had screwed up a couple of things on Leigh's application but the consulate official quickly showed me what to correct and we had our passports back with Bolivian visas after a few minutes.

On the way back to our hotel we found the Plaza Mayor full of riot police and protestors. It turns out that there is general strike today, although most of the protestor here were school teachers protesting about changes to the education system.

The line of peaceful protestor continued a few blocks back to the Parque Pino. I'm a fan of peaceful demonstration to make the common person's voice heard so we bought a sandwich and sat down in Parque Pino and enjoyed the procession. Woody Guthrie said he likes a baby who cries loudly because when it grows up it can go to the government offices and scream and shout loudly enough to make its demands heard.

In the afternoon we walked down to the lake to stretch our legs and have a gander at the city. It was pretty messy but there were lots of birds around. We resolved to cycle back in the morning to do some birding. Not wanting to walk the couple of kilometers back to the hotel, we caught one of the many tuktuks.

The fare definitely included a tourist tax of over over 100%.

Thursday the 15th of May 2025

This morning we cycled down to the lake to do some birding as decided the evening before. Nothing special, just a good mix of the Andean high altitude water fowl, but we had an enjoyable time.

One thing out of the ordinary was having to summon a couple of policemen after we noticed a half dressed body lying just out of the water on the side of an embankment. Luckily the police were able to rouse the person, whom we feared might have moved on to another life, but nonetheless we hot footed it to another spot on the lake for a less stressful birding experience.

A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

An Andean Coot (Fulica ardesiaca) with chicks in tow

The previous two days we have skipped the usual seven soles menu del dia and opted for hamburgers and pizza for a change. But by this evening I had started to feel hemmed in by the tourist environment and headed away to a polleria I had seen (and smelled) a few blocks away to pick up an octavo para llevar.

After lazing around in Puno for the past couple of days we are going to extend the laziness by a few days more. My 65th birthday comes up in two days time so we plan to spend it at another decent hotel on the shores of the lake about twenty kilometers down the road. Its a small town so hopefully we will feel comfortable there.

Friday the 16th of May 2025

I started feeling out of sorts yesterday afternoon. Just as we were about to check out of the hotel this morning we made a call to delay our departure from Puno by a day to allow me to recover. So we'll only get going again tomorrow.

Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 447 km (278 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	5
Comment on this entry	Comment	0