Crossing the Andean Plateau, Colca to Puno

Felt like I hardly slept last night. Up early again, breakfast at 5.45 am and on the road by 6.30.
Today is a 6 hour drive across the alti-plano to Puno.
We retraced our tracks back to the Stone Forest in the National Park,after stopping again at the high pass, Patapampa The climb out of the Colca valley did not seem as steep going up as compared to the descent.
We headed towards Puno, stopping at a lookout to view the Laguna Lagunillas, a
large lake fed from mountain river runoff.

We continued on until a turn off to Lampa. At the turn off there was asmall village with numerous eucalypts planted down its Main Street,quite a sight in the middle of the Andean plateau. Apparently eucalypts
were introduced to Peru about 120 years ago as a replacement for native Peruvian trees which had been deforested. Cypress and pines were also introduced at the same time. Little did they know of the
destructive root system of eucalypts which contributed to crop losses over the ensuing years.

A scene reminiscent of a small railway town in country SA

Driving through desolate and remote farming communities. a dusty gravel road of approx 25 kms led us to Lampa. Lampa is known for its Church of Inglesia de Santiago Apostol. We toured the church which had some creepy catacombs, but the highlight was a huge domed tomb of marble topped by a copy of
Michaelangelo's Pieta and lined with skeletons.

 

Lampa is also known as the "Pink City" because of the pink coloured clay used for bricks

We had lunch in the car enroute through Juliaca to Puno and arrived there on schedule at 2.30. We farewelled Elfer and Alfonso who had been magnificent company as tour guide and driver.
Even though the car journey had been tiring, we went out for a walk. We strolled down to the Plaza de Armas where Jack had an icecream, and sampled the local specialty, Quesa Helados or Cheese icecream, yes, that's right. We also found a shop along the main shopping and restaurant strip which sold Johnnie Walker for $18 a bottle - a very happy Jack!!! Happy Hour pisco sours whilst people watching at the local Mall, then pizza for dinner.