A day in Juliaca

We woke up this morning not knowing what to do, and where to go. You can see on one of our pictures below that we do not have any good maps for our trek. The Lonely planet trekking guide recommended us to find maps down here. We cannot disagree more. The disadvantage of only having a rough map is that you cannot choose the pictoresque small roads outside the main roads and cities, because we do not know where they are. We end up along the main roads and are therefore considering to go to Cusco where they have maps, and use Cusco as a base for several recommended trails in our trekking book. We have seen a lot of the countryside unavailable for the standard tourist, and will strive to still avoid the most beaten tracks (except Machu Picchu which is a must do).

As we started our walk towards Juliaca today, the scenery was the outskirt of a city (ugly houses) and the motivation kind of low. We had decided to take a ride with a mototaxi (riqshaw) when a pickup drove up to us and wanted to know if we needed a ride. The guy was a doctor, and drove us to the centre. He bought us 5 litres with a terrible flavoured liquid (should be good for us), 10 bananas and 6 apples. He then invited us to sleep over at his clinic, which is in good proximity of the city centre. We gratefully accepted, and are soon on our way home to the clinic. We have, as mentioned above, some decisions to do tonight.

On Isla del Sol, with our Dutch aquaintances Tom and Mariel

Llamabusiness

We were watching a military parade in Puno, and had to laugh so much when we saw the womans parade uniform: High heels and handbag. (Anita told me to express clearly that not all women were using handbags, only the officers school)

No to scare anyone: This is the best map we have seen, and it is only to be found on our camera.

Our room in Puno was cold, very cold.

Our first night our after Puno. A dog barked 1,5 hrs nonstop at our tent. We both fell to sleep while it was barking. Nice spot though.

Camping ground last night with our own little ruin. We collapsed on the sidewalk outside a small shop, tired from the walk. The shopkeeper felt so sorry for us that he gave us a gatorade to get the spitits up for free. We bought 6 piceces of bread, one chocolate and two bananas for 1,5 Sol = 36 euro cent.

We kind of mistook chili for pepper, and the tomato soup became a killer. This is a picture of Eirik trying to eat it. Oh yes, you can see tears.

NB: Eirik got a new hat, but not as nice as the old one.