Day 356 Thursday 27 March Putina to Puno 142km

Last night we were cold and wet and decided to not go out and search for a place to eat, we scratched around and found some nuts, biltong, cheese and wine from our panniers, (sadly one of the bottles of wine was un-drinkable as it was one of the local sweet red wines.

Correction, the mining town which is the highest town in the world is caller La Rinconada, I forgot the “…ada” at the end  in yesterdays Blog.

Here are some facts from The Proff;

Last night was not the best night of sleep I have ever had. I was reminded how dependent I am from the Internet with Hotel Wi-Fi at night to do the Blog and during the day for my phone which I use as a 2nd way to Navigate via Google Maps, especially through towns and cities, yesterday I had no Data from my service provider and you know the story with regards to the Bates Hotel last night without Wi-Fi.  But the hotel has no Duvets, so they put 4 Horse Blankets on the bed, it weighs a ton, and I was already battling breathing the thin air at 4000m, plus I had the weight of the blankets on me. The headache was memorable, actually still is, as we are at 3800m tonight.

As promised, here are some of yesterdays video’s and photos:

I think Pie was hoping that one of us would fall over or get our Panniers stuck, but he was disappointed.

Below Millsy in Full Rain Gear, not so much for the rain but to keep the wind out and help stay warmer on the bike, it was at 4,5 Degrees up on the mountain.

All the women walk with this Blanket type of cloth, they carry stuff in it, including children and farming inpliments and it is also used to keep warm.

They farm with big herds of Lama and also the smaller Alpaca. Pie almost ran over one that was crossing the road, so it was time for a photo.

This morning there was no breakfast at our hotel, as one would expect when you pay only $14 for a room. There was also not a chance of getting a coffee in the little town so we hit the road at 7h00. We continued on a very small road and the 1st half of the day was great, not a single truck, but as we got closer to Puno we started getting lots of local taxis, who probably all had their Drivers Training in Johannesburg.

We became very hungry and turned off the road into a very small town and rode to the Town Square which was packed with locals eating their breakfast and lots of traders trading their wares. We were welcomed with lots of smiles and people started taking photos of us and our bikes and started communicating with us through sign language and with Tex and Rocky helping to get the message across. Some asked for Selifies and others posed on the bikes, then I thought it was time to start taking photos of them;

This lady has a 50kg bag on the back of her bike.

This an sells chopped Coca Leaves, (used for making of Cocaine,) and the locals chew this and keep it in their mouths similar to what we would do with Chewing Tobacco :

Don’t know why she chose a Selfie with Theuns, she must have sensed that he was still Single:

In the photo below you can see how the load-bed of this mans “Bakkie” becomes the table his customers sit around and eat the food his wife cooks:

This mother has her baby under the left arm and is off doing the school-run for her other two kids;

Unfortunately we did not eat any breakfast as the spot where we stopped was where an old lady was frying fish bones and worms, I think it was worms, Peens said it was something like a Kapenta (Small Fish, Wait Bait.). And up-wind from us was the Sheep Head Table, so with that smell in the air we settled for some fruit and a Coke.

We left and continued, and as we already did lots of todays ride yesterday (when we were looking for a hotel,) we arrived early at Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which is also another tick off from the things we have done and seen as this lake is the highest Navigable Lake in the world (as there are big ships sailing on the lake.) It also is a place of significance, cultural and mythological, for the Inca People.

We decided to treat ourselves and found a very good hotel for tonight. We managed to book a boat tour to the Floating Islands (more about that in tomorrows Blog.) We handed in our washing, there is breakfast tomorrow and the Wi-Fi is really good, things are Looking-Up again.

Tomorrow we cross into Bolivia, we are expecting a difficult border crossing and I am not looking forward to all the Bureaucracy that awaits. There will be lots of boxes to tick, hoops to jump through, palms to grease etc. In fact, it is so sad that one can immediately know you are in a Third World Country by looking at the litter, being blocked with endless Bureaucracy, and the Corruption.

In Bolivia we will head to the Salt Flats, once again it is the highest Salt Lake in the world. I think we have really done “Lakes” as we went to the deepest lake (that holds a third of the worlds fresh water,) Lake Baical, when we rode through Siberia in Russia, now we have the highest lake and then the highest salt lake, all on the back of the highest city.

Mooi Bly Julle

Fleisch

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