Day 263 - Puno - Arequipa

(Ursula) Heinz woke up feeling rested but still had a fever and headache. So, we both stayed in bed until noon.

Then I prepared oatmeal with raisins for lunch. After lunch, I boiled a large pot of water to wash the sweat off our bodies. That felt wonderful - better than any medicine! In the evening, I cooked more oatmeal. Then we played a game of Canasta and went to bed early again.

January 20th
(Ursula) Heinz has recovered and is back "in the saddle"! We can continue our trip.

First, we returned to Puno for refueling and stocking up on drinking water and food.

Route 34A then took us West over the mountains towards the coast. We knew it was (officially) the rainy season and were forewarned about the driving conditions. But let's see if weToday'ske it.

Today's stretch was indeed a challenge. We plowed through many pools of water. Heinz did his best to navigate and avoid large potholes. At times the road was quite muddy and slippery. Other times it felt like driving over corrugated metal. It shook us so severely that every bone in our bodies felt loose. Progress was slow, and luckily we never got stuck.

It was foggy, and at times, we had heavy rain, but that was OK because there wasn't anything interesting to visit along the way during bad weather. Nothing but rocks and rocks and more rocks.

After a 15,091ft pass, the road gradually descended toward Arequipa, and the weather improved.

We camped by the side of the road near a bridge. When it was dark outside, we could make out the shimmering lights from the city of Arequipa below at a distance.

Stats: Miles 200, Expenses $3.95Read more