Juliaca

Today is a downhill day! A good thing as we have 70km to cover and we are tired from the previous few days. The wonderful gorge scenery with occasional Puya Raymondii continues for a while until the vallley widens into a great flat plain leading towards lake Titicaca. After so many months of mountains and canyons, flat seems really quite strange. And Nice!! The kilometers pass surprisingly quickly. There are still many herds of Alpacca and sheep. Endearingly, one by one the Alpaccas raise their heads from the grass to give give us a quizzical stare as we pass.

Soon we are approaching the suburbs of the city of Juliaca. Lots of rubbish along the road, unmaintained or half finished buildings everywhere... it is painful to see. Alice finds it difficult not to think of it as a bit of a dump. Still, we easily find an acceptable hotel, stock up our larder, and dry out our camping kit.Read more