Woke to the alarm at 5.30am and finished packing our bags before having breakfast and checking out at 7am. We had booked our bus through VIP Travel Service and Elena had been very helpful and had arranged for us to be collected at the hostel at 7am to be taken to the bus station for a 7.30 departure.
Until 7.10am I wasn’t concerned as most things run on “Peru Time” but when no one had arrived by 7.15am I was starting to worry about making the bus. The man on the front desk tried to ring the agency but couldn’t get hold of anyone ( I was a bit surprised that Damian was getting worried about missing the bus. I felt like saying “Damian haven’t you learnt anything about patience since we have been travelling, I mean the bus would not leave with out us -Sarah) so I rang the bus company and gave them our names and was told they had no record of us on the bus (which was due to leave in about 2 minutes.) I told him we were on our way and we flagged down a taxi to take us to the bus office. There we showed the “receipt” the agency lady had given us and after a few hasty phone calls including to the bus which was currently heading out of town we jumped in another taxi for a mad dash to catch the bus.
Safely aboard we vowed to purchase bus tickets directly from the bus companies as we had been in the past because for the $10USD Elena had charged us for commission she seemed to have done absolutely nothing! And while missing the bus to Puno would not have been a total disaster, we would have been charged for a nights accommodation we booked in Puno and probably would have had to sleep on the streets in Cuzco as everywhere was booked out for New Years Eve.
VIP Travel Service has a nasty email coming their way tonight.

After the brief morning drama, the bus trip was very pleasant. Our first stop was in a small town at a rather tired looking church called the “Sistine Chapel of America” which had some pretty religious murals on the walls and roof and very impressive looking gold plated and solid silver altar.

Second stop was the ruins of an Inca City which was a trading post between Cuzco and southern cities in Bolivia and Argentina. The walls were built with stone and adobe so not much of the mud brick was remaining but the field of remains of the 120 food silos that were once there was impressive as was the central wall of a once massive 14 metre high temple.

Third stop was a lunch break at a restaurant where we had a delicious buffet lunch looking out at a grazing Llama and over the fields to snow capped mountains.

Fourth stop was at the highest point on the road to Puno at 4330 metres ASL. Very pretty mountain vista with a few stalls selling the usual trinkets and some children posing in costume with Llamas for money.

Fifth stop was in a small town to visit a museum with artifacts from some nearby ruins which would have been more interesting than the museum.

The last couple of hours were driving across the “Altiplano” which is a high altitude plane between a couple of the Andes ranges. No trees at all and lots of small communities of farmswith herds of Cows, Sheep, Llamas and Alpacas. High mountains in the distance, some with snow on top.

The last city we passed through before Puno was the city of Juliaca. I think it must have been our guide’s home town because he was raving about how wonderful the place was the whole time we drove through. He pointed out the “international airport” as we passed and mentioned it twice more. (Big deal, so it has twice daily, 1 hour flights to La Paz in Bolivia?) The town wasn’t too different from other towns we had been through. Dry and dusty looking with no parks or vegetation apparent. But the guide kept on. “We have the black market and the smuggling from Bolivia so the city is growing. Is more cheap than other places in Peru.” He also was quite proud of the 25000 taxi-chulos the city had which were bicycle tuk-tuks.

After Juliaca we got our first look at Lake Titacaca before arriving in Puno. From the bus station we took a taxi through town to the Hostel. It was a really nice room with private bathroom and the best shower since Ecuador. After we booked in we walked into the middle of town to get some dinner. Heaps of people around being NYE but very few tourists. We had a nice pizza for dinner in a restaurant with a fish tank with tiny turtles swimming around. Went back to our hotel room and had a few (or more!) drinks while watching cable TV and chatting with friends on Skype and listening to the fireworks being let off in the street below. Had a good chat with Jasper and Jeanie who were sweltering in 35 degree heat back in Sydney. Puno is at 3900 metres ASL so gets pretty cold at night!