Days 149 to 153: Cusco, PER to La Paz, BOL

Day 149: Cusco, PER to Puno, PER (391 km)

The road from Cusco to Puno was mostly high speed pavement, something we still enjoyed after the grueling days in the mountains of Peru. It was a bit cold, though, as we rode at close to 4000 m altitude for most of the day. We left Cusco fairly late in the morning, and still managed to make it to Puno by 5 pm. Also, we didn't catch any rain, which was a first in a while.

Days 150 and 151: Puno, PER

There's not much to say about Puno, other than it is located right by the famous Titicaca lake. Definitely not a looker, so no pictures from the two days we spent there. The highlight of the stay is probably the killer chocolate cake we encountered in a bakery close by to our hotel.

Since we had cable TV and decent wifi at the hotel, we decided to stay there for a day. The main reason is that we wanted to catch the Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz UFC fight in the evening. In North America, UFC events are typically PPV (pay per view), but in Latin America they are shown on cable TV on the FOX network. Fortunately, we had this channel in the hotel, so we were able to enjoy watching GSP kick ass while sipping on some cold beers.

We had planned to leave the next morning, but we both woke up tired and decided to stick around for an extra day. This gave me the opportunity to do some catching up on the blog. The previous day, Mihai had spotted a shopping mall with a modern movie theater, and they played Django Unchained (latest Tarantino joint) in English with Spanish subtitles. Therefore, we went to check that out in the evening. Good movie, very entertaining.

Day 152: Puno, PER to Copacabana, BOL (134 km)

The next day, we rode the remaining 126 km to the border with Bolivia. The border crossing procedure went great on both sides, and we were done with the paperwork in about an hour. From there, we rode the remaining 8 km to Copacabana, where we would spend the night.

Copacabana is a small town, right on the Titicaca lake. There are quite a few tourists around, as this is where most of the tours to the Isla del Sol (island of the Sun, on the Titicaca lake) depart from. We booked a cheap hotel room with a nice view. 

There was a cool Mercedes Benz expedition truck parked in front of the hotel, so we chatted with the driver, Steve. The truck belongs to a UK-based company, which owns several similar vehicles and organizes trips in several parts of the world, taking something like 10-12 passengers at a time. 

We had asked Steve about the Isla del Sol, but he said that if we saw Machu Picchu, we would not be impressed by the rather minor Inca ruins that can be found there. Therefore, we decided to skip, and to head to La Paz on the following day.

View of Copacabana from the surrounding mountains. 

Day 153: Copacabana, BOL to La Paz, BOL (142 km)

Great twisty roads for the first half of the day, with more nice views of the Titicaca lake. 

At some point, we had to make a barge crossing across the water. The wooden barges (there were several of them) were kind of sketchy looking, and powered only by old outboard motors. This seemed ok for 2 motorcycles and 2 mini-buses, but the same barges were also used to transport some heavy trucks, which would have made me a little nervous if I was the driver...

At around 3 PM, we made it to La Paz. When you first enter the outskirts of the city (the El Alto town, located on a plateau), the scenery is far from nice. Just ugly brick buildings and lots of traffic and dust. However, when you finally make it to the edge of the valley where La Paz lays, the view is spectacular. Notice the snow capped mountains in the background.

Next up, La Paz. We ended up spending a week there, mainly thanks to the great hospitality of Marco (Mihai's work colleague in Haiti) and his family.