Day 13 – A Higher Form of Normalcy Returns

Out of the gate early this morning, we scraped the ice off of our bikes before departing Cusco from 11,200 feet.  The saddle-bound normal life was about to return. A quick high-five while riding past a traffic cop represented today’s cultural exchange.

Dropping into Urcos and then heading off to Puno, it was going to take 245 miles to get there.  We traced along the Vilaconta River following it to its source at the La Raya Pass at 14,232 feet.  Mount Yana Cuchilla  smiled down upon us from 17,950 feet as we pushed forward on the stick to level off at 13,000 feet for much of the remaining day.  Rarefied air had, by now, become our friend and this relationship will undoubtedly intensify tomorrow.

Lunch was soup and bread and cost $0.76 USD per person.  Another 76 cents bought you a Coke or Inca Cola.  The little shopkeeper depicted below, ran a tight ship, but only after school was out at 1:00 pm.  Locals still found the bikes fascinating and it was easy to trade a “tener un asiento” for a pose, in return.

At this altitude, the colors used to paint the scenery are palpable.  They stand naked before you with no barriers to filter their intensity.  It’s easy to understand the influence that these surroundings have on the woven clothing adorning the inhabitants.  How uninspiring, probably, that they would find my world.

We split up and rode roughshod through the town of Juliaca.  Dirt streets, with conditions akin to a motocross track, kept us entertained while rejecting multiple gas stations offering only 82 octane.  Lane lines, paving, curbing and all other means of suggesting some semblance of order disappeared and it became a free-for-all splitting wall-to-wall traffic.  Marty adopted the practice of pounding on the sides of buses and then digitally suggesting that the bus driver was #1 as Dave kept her rolling along.  Harley chicks are like that, though.

The final drop of the day was gradual to 12,500 feet arriving at Lake Titicaca in the town of Puno.  This, the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, runs 118 miles long and 50 miles wide, catching water from an area of 22,400 square miles and producing a lake surface area of 3,232 square miles.  It’s shaped like a puma hunting a rabbit…sort of.

While the lake is beautiful, my interest was drawn to its people living on the 44 floating-reed-island nation of Uros.  More on that tomorrow after we drop in on them.

Another eye-catcher is the steamship SS Yavari.  It’s presently anchored for restoration in Puno Bay, thanks to a charitable group.  She was built at 100 ft. in length (later lengthened) in 1862 at the Thames Iron Works UK, in knockdown form (think plates, nuts & bolts) for ease of dis-assembly and transport.  Given the altitude and access challenges presented by Titicaca in those days, this was essential.  Originally built for and launched by the Peruvian Navy in 1870, the navy discarded her in 1987.

Tapas and beer launched the dinner party, followed by entrees of chicken, trout and llama.