LAKE TITICACA

Our group has moved on from Cusco, & we are now in Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We had a good ride of about 400 km yesterday. The roads leaving Cusco were very ordinary. Nobody official gives a rats about potholes (or anything else as far as I can make out), but my favourite hazard is the missing manhole cover. Some of these are big enough to trap a front wheel, & they can appear at any moment. And if you are in a roundabout, & think this entitles you to some sort of priority.......wrong!! I am truly staggered at the number of dogs roaming the streets of Peru. Mange, distemper, hydatid worms, rabies etc are all alive & well , & in no danger of going the way of smallpox. But back to the riding. We crossed a mountain pass on the way here, at about 4300m. It was hailing just as we got to the top, but it blew over quickly, & we moved on over generally good roads, but with a few bad sections, through quite spectacular looking countryside, wide sweeping vistas with snowy peaks in the background. Lots of rural folk, mostly women in the traditional dress of skirt, long socks, cardigan & brightly cloured shoulder bags topped off by a bowler or top hat, walking along the roads herding sheep, llamas or alpacas. The hats apparently vary from town to town, region to region. Farmhouses are mostly made of mudbrick. Its quaint, but you wouldnt reckon anyone is making any money.

When we arrived in Juliaca, I thought I was back in India, complete with roadside junk & diabolical traffic. The ride leader took a wrong turn up a narrow one way street in the middle of the chaos (hey, it happens) & we ended up having to turn around. Ten bikes doing 3 point turns in street did not help, but I thought it was pretty funny all the same. Anyhow, we got here, & I continued my startling run of punctures by picking up another nail just as we arrived. Oh, another thing , the 650GS has a seat like a park bench, good thing I brought the Airhawk seat cushion.

This morning we went out on the lake to visit the floating islands made of reeds, which was the purpose of our visit to Puno. This is really quite remarkable, as there are whole communities living out there in houses made of reeds, & it feels weird to walk around with a slight moving sensation as the surface gives underfoot, sort of like walking on a matress. They also make boats out of reeds as well, which was neat to see. These days though, the buoyancy is provided principally by two tubes filled with empty plastic bottles. Such is progress. The bad news is that this place has been developed into a total tourist trap, the objective being to extract as much dough from everybody as possible, but this is no surprise, is it¿ (that was a spanish question mark by the way). So after the obligatory photos of women in Peruvian outfits, & a wander into some of the houses for a look, out comes the hard sell for local handicrafts (read: crap that nobody needs or wants, least of all me). Pretty much what we expected. As for the Lake itself, it is impressive in that it is so large, over 160 km long, & is located in the mountains at such a high altitude. But sadly the reality is that it is a fetid swamp, the worlds largest sewage treatment lagoon, a giant stinking cesspit constantly topped up by the shit running from the streets & drains of Puno & other towns. Fortunately, the stench is somewhat modified by the clouds of exhaust fumes, & even in the back of this particular internet cafe there is no escape.

I just dont know how so much of the world lives in conditions like these, much less how it can ever be improved. If people dont care about it, then they deserve to live in crap. And being poor doesnt give you a licence to throw your rubbish into the street. I cant see that Puno serves any other purpose than to pollute Lake Titicaca, and that the concepts of urban planning & building control, public health management & basic hygeine are virtually non existent. As for Occ Health & Safety.........dont make me laugh! Anyway, we leave for Bolivia tomorrow, which is just across the other side of the Lake, & have our first border crossing. I dont expect there will be much improvement. Photos asap, I promise.

But amid all of the above angst, today I had one of those moments you just cant buy. I was walking along the street just as a primary school was finishing for the day. A little girl of about 5 or 6 stopped on the footpath & looked me up & down with a very studious expression on her face, and then with that wonderful innocence that only children have, said " Greengo".