turistas than bustling Cusco, but it is much louder. The drivers here honk at ANYTHING that moves. The diesel in the air makes me cough.
Our first order of business upon arrival is checking into the hostal, then we must find food and book our tour of Lake Titicaca. People don't really come all this way to see Puno. They come to see Lake Titicaca. Now everyone, say it with me (because you know you LOVE it): LAKE TI-TI-CA-CA!!
We all decide upon a sleepy cafe called something related to "tulip." Seriously, I need to write these things down and I did try, but I guess not hard enough. Anyway, I think the altitude suppressed all of our appetites as most of us ordered light. I had tomato soup and potato puree. Those potatoes - you could drink them they were so pureed!! Look at all of us at the lunch table:
After lunch, Amanda, Tami, Ryan, and I head over to All Ways Travel to book our tour of Lake Titicaca. There are options to stay overnight on a couple of the islands with local host families, but I can tell you that I wasn't feeling like spending a cold night out an island after 4 days on the mountain. Ryan wasn't much in the mood for a home stay, and before Larry left for more sleep at the hostal, he stated is preference for no overnights. Tami was on the fence and Amanda definitely wanted the full cultural experience. In the end, we decided for the US$15 full day tour of both Uros and Taquile islands, the day after next. We wanted a full day in Puno to relax, recuperate, and explore, before jumping on a boat.
Hotel El Buho ("The Owl") doesn't block out all the noise of this city, but we ladies have our own room with our own beds and our own PRIVATE bathroom with 24/7 HOT water. Now, access to hot water wasn't a serious problem on this trip, but after days on the trail and a somewhat inconsistent level of preferred hotness at Pirwa, this place is the bees knees in comparison. I spend about 20 minutes in the shower, which gives me enough time to chop down the forest growing on my legs. Smooth legs are a wonderful reward for making it this far....
For dinner, we head over to El Buho Pizzeria. There are pizzerias EVERYWHERE in this town. Everywhere. All wood fired. Because this place is COLD when the sun goes down and the warmth of a wood stove feels fantastic. The wood stove nicely adds to already fantastic air quality of Puno, too. Amanda, Tami, and I order a nice gooey pizza with veggies on top, and its a nice cap to the end of long day of travel.
At night, I don't even pull out the sleeping bag with all the wool blankets piled on top of our beds. Our room is much colder than the boys' room (see Amanda's sleeping attire below), but at least we girls each have our own bed. The boys refuse to share the one full-sized bed in their room. Ryan opts to sleep on the floor while Larry continues to recuperate from the trail in the bed.
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