September 30, 2009 Part II

Just a quick post to let everyone know we made it safe and sound to Puno. We arrived in Juliaca around 2:30 claimed our luggage and met our "taxi" and left there around 3. That city is not spoken of highly for tourists. The drive here was surprisingly good, especially compared to the commute from Port Au Prince to Gonaives in Haiti. We got to Puno around 4 and got checked into our hotel. After that we wandered the complex for a little while and decided we wanted to have an early dinner and hit the sack early. The hotel is definitely nice with a wonderful restaurant. I had roccoro relleno (a pepper stuffed with some sort of beef stew served with something that reminded me of au gratin potatoes covered with a cheese sauce. It was fabulous. I also had some vegetables zucchini, mushrooms and roasted red peppers that were covered with a provolone cheese. Chuck had alpaca tenderloin steak with french fries and Chad had beef something with rice. All dishes were excellent. We are already getting ready for bed as we are shot after traveling for close to 34 hours with little sleep. Only a few cat naps here and there on the plane. Tomorrow we head out for a tour of Lake Titikaka and will visit two of its floating islands. We learned tonight that the deepest part of the lake is 270m. We will double check and fill you with useless information tomorrow. Everyone is doing well despite the high altitudes. Chat soon.