Tuesday 1st April 2025 Puno to Pucara
Went to downtown Puno last night for a Pasta/Pizza meal, quite a nice little place full of travellers, even two touring bikes outside, but did not get to meet them unfortunately, had the meal few beers nice evening. Bingo decided he wanted to do a supermarket shop, was not happy with the stuff Ringo brought back, It was all biscuits and chocolate, tell who brought him up!

Ringo and I had one last beer in a bar, before retiring to the hotel, well it was 8pm, Bingo soon came back with a bag for life, filled up with pasta tomato sauces, onions, peppers etc, we will be camping in the next couple of days.

Breakfast in the Hotel at 6 in the morning, good spread, we all made good use of it, eating everything we could lay out hands on. Hit the road just before 7, with the daunting task of getting out Punto, a very pleasant Town or maybe City who knows. What we did know is that the only way out is up. Bingo is on it, down this street up this street, the up this street, mate you are having a laugh, typically Ringo powers up it like a demon, Bingo and Gringo wobbled up the 1st section, then say sod that, manged to get up there in the end. Good stuff we join the route then, just another 2 miles of climbing, could feel that breakfast rumbling in my belly, thankfully it stayed there just. We moreover I crawled up the hill, luckily a tourist bus pulled in front, then stopped on a corner to let the tourist take a picture of Puno, seemed a good idea for me to take a break and take a picture, why not. Finally met up with the other two, after loads of pictures and explaining what I was up to with all the tourists, was well happy gave me a lovely break.

That was the first and only climb of the day, just a gentle roll up a little gradient all day, nobody putting the power on just nice and easy, mixed in with a bit of bird watching, lovely Owl perched on a telegraph pole, Bingo and his apprentice Ringo all over it, shame we have no WIFI to correctly identify it, but rest assured it will be. We rode straight through the bustling town of Juliaca, riding adjacent to the railway line, that now only runs tourist trains occasionally, very busy town with traffic once again all over the place, the consistent thing is the horn blowing, we were all glad to get of the town.

Very boring flat road, nothing spectacular just a matter of grinding out the miles. We had a little plan to stop for lunch at a place called Calapla, just a little village, stopped in the only restaurant (stretching the terminology a little), we had the set course as there was no other choice, Soup, not sure what flavor but ok, Rice vegetables and Llama, obviously Bingo had three helping of the Llama as Gringo & Ringo concentrated on the rest of the stuff, then the best bit dessert a lovely banana, made the dinner in my opinion.

Least the road was getting better now, off the dusty plains in to the valley with steep mountains either side of us, a lot better, with just over 24 miles to go, young Rylan pulled us home to the charming hamlet of Pucara, and a delightful hostel, with no hot water, WIFI but least its a bed.

Bingo and I went in search of a beer, while Ringo had a cold shower and a shake dry, tough lad, he eventually found us cramped around a little table in a shop selling all sorts but mainly china clay models of Bulls, think this must be a bull fighting village. Went over the road and had exactly the same meal , without the Llama chicken this time and No Banana, once again Bingo had a feast on the chicken.

Retired for bed very early, Think Ringo is excited as it is his Birthday tomorrow!