Memoirs of a Loner Traveler: Puno, Peru (I)

Arrived in Puno at 3 in the afternoon today, after an 8 hour bus ride on a unexpectedly sketchy bus. Well, actually, it wasn´t that bad. It´s just that, the company that I booked with wasn´t running for some reason, and the dispatcher put me on a bus of a different company. The roads from Cusco to Peru are pretty rough, and at some points it made you think you were off-roading in the middle of a desert or something - I swear the bus could´ve fallen apart at any minute!

Plus, there was the mid-ride seating change. I had found a seat amongst three Japanese women who were traveling together, but then about 3 hours into the ride, the dispatcher came and dislodged me from my seat because two Belgian (?) men were whining about their seating arrangements in the back of the bus. I found a seat in the bottom deck, thank god, which was actually a lot cooler and more comfortable. All was good until someone on the upper deck decided to vomit out of their window, and its former-stomach contents splattered our windows. That was a nice view.

Puno, I find, is a lot more approachable than Cusco. Maybe because it is smaller, or maybe because there are fewer tourists around (although, there are still a lot, considering my hostel is fully booked until next week), the place feels safer.

Anyway, tomorrow I´m rendezvous-ing with my friend Aya and we are off to tour the Uros islands. Tomorrow night I head out to Arequipa!