Puno - Day 1 - Lift with the Gap crew down to Puno for some guinea pig

One little benefit to come out of being with this GAP group was that they were heading to Puno today as well and were kind enough to offer me a lift in the minivan.  Any avoidance of public buses and bus terminals is always a good thing! Even better was that at about 1:30 a.m. the previous evening as we filtered out of the pub, the group had a small mutiny and decided that their 9 a.m. departure wasn't going to happen so it was pushed out to 10 a.m.  All sleep is welcome in my books :)

So a fairly lazy day's drive down to Puno through some nice countryside.  I was introduced to some Irish music by a guy called Jack L (ukeman) so in case I forget someone remind to by his CDs when I'mm back.

I left the GAP group to check in to their hotel and managed to find a two star place called Hotel Arequipa about 4 blocks away.

  Not a lot to the room, just a bed and a desk really but I was just treating Puno as a place to sleep on the way to Isla del Sol anyway. So although I could of slept quite easily, I used the afternoon to figure out buses to Copacabana and booked in my 7:30 a.m. ticket (doh, one more day without sleeping in). Also purchased a big llama hair (supposedly) poncho in preparation for the cold temperatures of the salt flats.

The GAP group was down to 5 now so we met for one final dinner, and decided that we had to sample cuy (roasted guinea pig) before we left Peru.  None of us were willing to go for an entire guinea pig on our own so we just shared one among the group.  It's quite a good taste really, a little bit like rabbit, but you don't get a lot of meat on them so all those guinea pigs back home can rest easy I think.