Adios Peru

Our bus from Cusco to Puno was unsurprisingly but still depressingly overdue. Even the locals complained about how often we stopped to pick up and drop off passengers in random locations. We even had to change buses in Juliaca (a mere 45 km from Puno) since by then our bus was only half full and there was another half full bus at the terminal. Go bottom line! Upon arriving in Puno we were told that that particular company (San Luis) is notorious for being super slow. Well, now we know.

Puno sits on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We got there at night and pretty much lugged our bags up to our 5th floor room (quite a chore at 3800 m), got photos for Bolivian immigration, and snagged dinner in the restaurant next to the photo place (it was raining pretty hard). Dinner was actually great. We got a fixed menu that came with very good tomato soup, grilled alpaca, yummy apple pie, and a glass of chicha morada. We also got a rocoto relleno (stuffed hot pepper), which was on our list of "Peruvian food we should try" for quite some time. And we got some deliciously butter-and-cheese-covered ravioli with mushrooms. Everything was really tasty and rather cheap, and we knocked off the rest of our Peruvian food must-dos right before leaving the country (alpaca, rocoto, chicha morada). Too bad we only stayed one night, Puno seems like not a bad city.

In the morning we were not really awoken by some crazy parade drum & flute business, accompanied by fireworks, at 5:15am. I say not really awakened since sunrise in Puno is at 4:30am, and that did a pretty good job of getting us up (curtains in South America have so far been rather flimsy). We can only assume that this good morning ritual is commonplace in Puno. Perhaps it's good we only stayed one night. The crowd remained at the statue pretty much all morning, though the fireworks stopped around 6am. Drumming continued.

Our bus to Bolivia was in the morning (and we checked with the hotel staff that the company was not crap this time), so after a rather yummy breakfast we got our taxi and piled on the bus. Copacabana, Bolivia was only 3.5 or so hours away from Puno, and our bus was mercifully on time. The border crossing was quick, and the bus company actually provided instructions--a welcome addition compared to the Ecuador-Peru crossing. Unfortunately we are US citizens, and had to pay for a visa: $135 each. Good for 5 years though if we decide to come back! [Koreans, Russians, and South Africans are also subject to a visa fee; the rest of the world is free. Next time we travel, we need to be Canadian.]

And that was that, no more Peru. Somehow we spent as much in 15 days in Peru as we did in 35 days in Ecuador. Let's hope Bolivia lives up to its reputation of being inexpensive.