I got to the bus station early this morning and the earliest bus going to Puno was Cruz del Sur and they gave me a deal that was 1/2 the price of the cheats in town so I booked it and headed off. The road to Puno is a bitumen road but it is like driving over corrugated gravel. Its the roughest bitumen road Ive been on in a long while. The first part of the trip goes the same way as Chivay so you go through the high desert. The whole west coast is desert. After a few hours we got to the altiplano (high plane) This is about 4500 masl for most of the way and green for a change. This is farmland cos there is plenty of water from the snow thaw. We even drove above the snow line for a while. There were heaps of small villages along the way. We had to come through Juliaca and what a s***hole that place is. I will not be stopping there on the way back after all. The only reason to stop there is cos it has the only airport in the area. The place was full of puddles with water lying everywhere and dusty as hell....go figure. Puno is on the shore of lake Titikaka and built on the side of a hill so all the streets go up hill or across. It is hell walking around cos the altitude is 3600 masl so I am gasping for breath. There are a couple of statues on the hill but you will have to be content with pics from the bottom. I think the cathederal here is more impressive than any so far but inside was dark as and a let down. Still I have had a bit of a look around and now I will have to get a cab back to the hostel cos Im lost. Im going out to the islands on lake Titikaka tomorrow and will stay overnigh on Armantani so you wont hear from me for a coupla days, then I will have to update you again cos I will be going to Bolivia for a coupla days.