Peru V: Back Over the Pass to Puno

October 7, 2022, was a long driving day, from Colca to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  The distance was 185 miles and the elapsed projected driving time was a bit over five hours.  However, it took a couple of hours longer than that, because we stopped multiple times for rest breaks and to eat our boxed lunch.

“Everything is downhill from here,” our guide, Raul, said, as we drove back over the desolate, 16,000 foot pass which we originally crossed on our way to Colca Canyon.  Dave kept track of our height on the altimeter on his iPhone.

There were hundreds of cairns along the top of the pass—piles of small stones.  They were monuments to honor people who died and to summon good luck.  

As I paid my one Peruvian "soles" to use the toilet at the top of the pass and took a piece of tissue at the front door of the toilet enclosure, I thought of all the variations on toilets that I have experienced in Peru.  There have been toilets without any toilet paper whatsoever (luckily, I carry a stash in my fanny pack) and many (or most) toilets with the toilet seat removed (did someone think it was unnecessary?).  There were toilets for men and women to use together, with every other toilet stall marked with an image of a man or a woman. One toilet identified the gender of each separate area by anatomically correct drawings of naked men and women.  Another toilet had separate areas for men and women, but they were separated only by a partial wall which we could see over and under!  And then there were tiny toilet stalls, so small I could barely undo my clothes without falling into the toilet, and large, elegant toilet stalls in the fancy hotels, with floor-to-ceiling, darkly stained doors.  And, always, there was the fear that if I latched the lock, I couldn’t get it open again! 

We passed the volcano with smoke spouting out its top, and we hoped that it was far enough away for us to avoid any eruption!  The guides were very casual about it.

We watched a woman in a Bolivian-style bowler hat tend her sheep.

We tried to sort out the varieties of camelids that roamed the national park which we drove through (llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicuna).  "It's how long their neck is," one guide said, and "It's how woolly they look," another said.  I never became expert at the sorting process.

We also stopped to watch this fox search through the desert for the rabbit-type animals that are also native to Peru.  His gray fur camouflaged him perfectly!

Finally, we reached Puno, 12,500 feet high, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, which Peru shares with Bolivia. 

Our hotel was the GHL Hotel Lago, a luxury lodge overlooking Lake Titicaca.

The interior of the hotel was strikingly modern, almost austere, but decorated with fascinating Peruvian art.

We watched the sunset over Lake Titicaca from the floor to ceiling windows in our bedroom.

After dinner, we walked outside to see the lights of Puno across the lake.