It was 6deg this morning but it felt warmer than it has for a few days. I lumped my big pack for a couple of kilometers this morning to find the cheese sandwich man from yesterday. When I found him he was out of cheese so that was a bummer. I caught a cab from there to the bus station. I was told to bring plenty of food and water cos the trip will take 10-12 hours and no stops. Bus was leaving at 8 and there had been a few leave before ours. I was travelling with Tour Peru and they charged me 55 soles. The problem is a strike on the main road from Puno to Cusco and they are not letting any traffic through, so the busses are going around via a dirt road. I cant give distances cos I dont have them so I will give times. 8.10 Leave the terminal 9.45 stop at police checkpoint. I dont know what this was about but they opened the baggage doors and looked in. 10.30 stop at Chinchero for food and drink only the locals got off here, drive through grazing country up a valley between two mountain ranges following a river with streans flowing into it. We got to see the last of the flamingo´s in the lakes, they are supposed to have migrated by now. 11.20 turned right onto dirt road. It wasnt much worse than the bitumen we had been on. The bloke next to me slept through it. Shortly after we saw some more flamingo´s. 12.30 Condoroma, the road after here was a bit rougher but still not too bad 2.00 passed copper mine at Tintaya owned by Ausie company Xstrata. 2.15 stopped for another Tour Peru bus, some of us got off to stretch our legs. We were told get on 5-6 hours to go no stops. 2.30 Espinar this is quite a big town and if you really wanted to, you could break the trip here. there are hostels and food everywhere and a huge bus station, I counted 6 buses when we went past. The roads around Espinar are quite rough. 3.00 we came onto bitumen road 3.50 Descanso another quite big town we stopped for food. The driver said 5 min but it turned out to be nearly half hour waiting for him. 4.10 hit dirt road again and keep an eye out for the Condors there were a couple here. 5.00 we had to negotiate a landslide which was not too much trouble. From here there was some stunning scenery of mountains and valleys. 5.20 bitumen and it was bitumen from here all the way. There seemed to be a lot of small villages. The road is a very, very winding road...that cant be overstated. Ive been on rougher roads in Australia but I cant remember a road so winding anywhere. The last couple of hours seemed to drag on and take forever. It was soo hot and stuffy in the bus I think the driver was on a bonus for not using the aircon. We arrived at the bus station at Cusco at 8.10 exactly 12 hours from the start. I used a tout at the bus station for a hotel. The place is quite nice but no one speaks any english so communication is hard.