Puno

After visiting Maccu Pichu we took a train to Ollampampa (or something like that) where we left immediately in a minibus taxi back to Cusco. After arriving in Cusco we walked around the city and updated the blog while we waited for a 10pm bus that would take us to Puno which is home to Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America.

The bus ride from Cusco to Puno was everything less than pleasant. The bus was clean which was a good thing but for an overnight 6 hour ride, the seats were very uncomfortable. The back of the seats reclined quite a bit but there was no where to put my feet. Most people had a bar to rest their feet on but the area where my bar should have been was occupied by a heater box. Initially I thought this would be a good thing because I'm always freezing and it was cold but they didn't turn it on for hours. When they did turn it on it felt like an inferno - I melted the tip of one of my sandals trying to find placement for my feet.

Then there was the bathroom. Because we were traveling at night, the entire bus was dark. None of the walkways were illuminated so I had to walk by brail to the bottom floor where the bathroom was. Pulling on the door to open it, it wouldn't budge so I assumed someone was using it. I went back to my seat and watched someone else go downstairs to the bathroom with success. Weird. A local waved me to follow me down to the bathroom with him so I followed. It's not what you think - he was trying to help me get in the bathroom. He pulled on the door and it wouldn't budge. Then he leaned his huge body into it and finally got it to open. Yes! But there was no light. He turned on his cell phone to illuminate the toilet bowl. I caught a glimpse of the bowl and entered at my own risk. I couldn't tell if the seat was up or down or if there even was a seat. I had no idea what I was hovering over, so I squated and went...I half expected to feel a warm sensation run down my leg because I didn't know if I was peeing into something or onto something. Since I couldn't open the door myself, I had a fear of closing in and not being able to get out so I held the door open while I peed. Finally feeling some relief I went back to my seat and tried to get some sleep. Overall I probably slept one hour that night. Graham later pointed out to me that the toilet I peed into was really just a hole in the floor that went directly onto the street.

Circumstances like this is what makes traveling so much fun - you never know what to expect and half the fun is not knowing what's going to happen next.