Day 60. Sunday, 27th October, 2024. From Lake Las Salinas to Hotel Marlon’s House in Puno, beside Lake Titicaca. 146 Miles 

Lake Las Salinas

Very peaceful. We saw no one after we arrived yesterday afternoon. Alone with the vicuñas and 100’s of flamingos. The lake is severely depleted of water and surrounded by salt flats. The water and the flamingos were a long way away.

Dennis was awake early. In fact neither of us slept much. The altitude is really messing up our sleep routine. Soon after 6am Dennis was up. I was extremely reluctant join him. He wanted to take down the Caranex before the wind picked up again and get packed up before tourist buses arrived. 

Despite the cold, we had been nice and warm and cosy tucked up in Poki. Inside it was 3 degrees when we woke. The Caranex was covered in ice and the plastic sink we had left outside, with water in it, was frozen.

We were all packed up and ready to go, but Poki wasn’t ready! She took about 20 minutes to start. She doesn’t like high altitude and cold. Just as we had her started, 2 mini buses pulled up disgorging tourists, who all wandered out onto the salt flats.

Poki, somewhat reluctantly, climbed back up the hill to the road. We stopped at the top as there was a water pipe gushing with clean, spring water. We topped up our tanks with 28 Litres and set off for Puno.

Tiring Drive

The road to Puno, the 34C, looks quite a good road on the map. It is gravel, though, not tar seal. In places is has been graded and is reasonable, but much of it is rocky, dusty and winding. We rattle, bump and shake along. It’s noisy and conversation is difficult. Leaving Lake Las Salinas there was quite a bit of traffic. Groups of locals who have pulled off the road and set up for, what looks like a picnic or barbecue. There are several police around too, which seems strange in the middle of nowhere.

We progress and see no other traffic for miles. The scenery is difficult to describe. It is vast, continuous high, wide, plateaus and never ending mountains. It is very beige or khaki. So dry there virtually no greenery. I don’t know what the alpacas, llamas and vicuñas find to eat.

Irrigation channels

We need to turn off the 34C on to an even smaller track. We nearly miss it as it is hard to see.

Time to stop for some lunch and a break from the rattling and jolting.  Once we continue, the track is pretty bad. Very rocky, so progress is slow. We pass a number of lakes, one with flamingos.

In places it is smoother and we speed up when we can. There are no speed bumps, but what there are frequently, are channels across the track for water to run through in the wet season.

Some are marked with warning signs, but not all. On one occasion we crash into one. They are sometimes hard to see. We have to stop to reorganise everything in Poki’s rear, as it has been flung everywhere.

There are huge herds of alpacas. Often they are in the road. When they see Poki they look in complete terror and run in all directions. They don’t appear to be very bright animals. They run into each other and go in all directions.

Puno

Eventually we reach a tar sealed road a few kilometres out of Puno. I use Google maps to take us to our chosen hotel. This is a disaster as Google maps wants to take us down some impossible footpaths and some tiny roads that are just too steep. Gradually, we descend into Puno. It is a very hilly town. We locate our hotel, but there is a barrier at the end of the road.

Our accommodation for two nights

I walk to the hotel and the receptionist says she will come and open the barrier. Someone has parked in front of the barrier, so we have to go around the block and enter the street from the opposite end. At first the entrance to the garage is blocked by a parked car, so we park in front of the hotel entrance.

We are on the fifth floor. There is no lift so walking up so many stairs is a monumental effort as we are still high, at 3824 meters. We do have a view over Lake Titicaca, though. Tomorrow we will do a sightseeing tour on Lake Titicaca to the Uros Islands.

The fairytale like Uros Islands are made up entirely from totora reeds. The lives of the inhabitants of these artificial islands are entirely dependent on the reed beds they live among.

Puno serves as a commercial and communications centre of the southern Peruvian Andes and trades in the wool of alpacas and llamas. Steamers regularly ply Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable lake, between Puno and Guaqui, Bolivia, which is linked by road to La Paz. Puno’s main industry though, is tourism.

By 6pm the entrance to the garage is clear. Getting Poki in is no easy matter. The street is steep and the garage is just an empty space next to the hotel on a rocky slope. We stop to cook dinner, but as we are on such an uneven surface, it is no easy task. While eating we are serenaded by a marching band. It is apparently Puno’s anniversary. Fire works follow and there is a lot of street noise. Hopefully this won’t go on late as a good night’s sleep is desperately needed.

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