RTW North to South: Cusco to Puno

CN - Saturday

Sadly tonight is our last night in Peru as we will be crossing into Bolivia tomorrow mid-day. Southern Peru has been amazing with certainly our trip to Machu Picchu being one of the highlights. The mountains, valleys, small towns and historic cities have blown me away. The Ceviche, Rocoto Chile and Pisco Sours enjoyed throughout have been brilliant. my only regret is not sampling the Guinea Pig - a Peruvian delicacy.

Today we got a fairly late start from Cusco as we needed to catch up on some much needed sleep. The past couple of days off the bikes have been been a bit exhausting - with the Machu Picchu logistical adventure and all. Even for a Saturday the Cusco traffic was a bit thick leaving the city. Riding in Peru had turned out to be one of the toughest countries of the trip - Peruvians are super nice people until they get behind the wheel of a car. The ride outside Cusco took us along a river valley at 14,000 ft. elevation - passing between 19,000+ ft. snow capped mountains. The mountains in Peru are crazy. We did get lucky and didn't get rained on today - a first in about a week straight of getting wet at least once daily. The last city before Puno obviously got some heavy rain earlier. The mud covered and heavily potholed streets (actually mostly dirt) covered us and the bikes with muck - probably the most destroyed city streets we have have encountered so far.

Speaking of destroyed, I have been hit with a rash of failures in the past week. My riding boots have started leaking - a lot, two charging power cords have completely died, my Sena bluetooth communication/music/camera has crapped out and my headlight on my bike stopped working. The miles are starting to take a toll on everything.

We ended up covering the 380k in about 6 hours and arrived in Puno around 5pm. Neither of us could get any data so we rode around a bit looking for a place to stay by just riding up and checking for availability - but it was lack of parking that kept us looking. Seems this town has only street parking - which we like to avoid. Finally we found a hotel that let us park in the lobby - score! An added bonus was the hotel's location a block from the main square with all the restaurants, bars and shops. We found a nice restaurant (too nice for us), enjoyed a good meal and were back to the hotel by 9pm. Tomorrow Bolivia!