Day 51 Unscheduled Bushcamp to Puno

Saturday 25th September dawned with a hard frost, frozen water bottles and not a very inviting prospect of getting up at about 5:30am!  It had been decided that we get a start one hour earlier, 7am, so as to give us time for what was now going to be a 160K stage to Puno across the Alti Plano, on average 3800 metres above sea level, which is basically flat with just a few undulations and which we will be on for a few days yet.

Packed away our wet tents, ready to dry out at the hotel in the evening, and set off to the rescheduled lunch stop at around 80K.  I got in with some of the fast guys and survived until around 70K when there was a slight incline on rough roads, after what had been smooth tarmac until then, and just could not get back on the back as the rough roads continued to lunch and I just could not maintain the speed!  Anyway I covered the first 80K in 2 hours 45 minutes which on a mountain bike, and at an altitude of least 3800 metres, pleased me and I got to lunch in 7th place, result!

After lunch it was just a case of surviving the boredom of flat straight roads until about 10K from the finish where we had a climb over about 5K which took us back up to in excess of 3900 metres before we dropped into Puno.  A police escort to the hotel was a treat that the 4 of us who were together at the time took with delight as we were ushered through the traffic to the hotel.  Just under 8 hours for the 158K and we were finally in Puno a day late with no rest day but ready to cross over the border to Bolivia tomorrow.

Some riders had taken one of the trucks earlier to visit the floating islands on Lake Titicaca, and some who arrived by bike in the afternoon also had the chance to do it.  I had been there a few years ago so just took the chance to relax!

Frost on tent and bike at 7 a.m.

Laundry time Peruvian style