11th July: Puno to Cusco

Uneventful day??? you bet...NEARLY DID NOT TURN OUT THAT WAY THOUGH...
Ordinary start of the day, breakfast at hotel. Stuffed myself with fresh fruits, bread and a couple of sunny side ups...All good...went back to my room, packed up, with plenty of time to spare. last couple of times I moved from place to place, I nearly forgot some things in the hotel, so this time...triple check...alll good....
Headed down to the hotel lobby, 7.05. someone from the travel agency was meant to come meet me between 7 and 7.15. Come 7.15, no one in sight. now if you even remotely know anything about me, you must know that I'm pretty anal about punctuality..does that come from childhood??? was I at some point left behind by my parents??? seriously don't know...mum???dad??? anyone??? anyway...digressing...

So I headed to the reception to call the travel agent contact, but they told me that alllll was good...that they had just called him and he was going to be there in 5 mins...and hey presto, he turned up at 7:30 sharp...!!! brought me to the bus station, handed me my bus ticket for Cuzco, departure 8:00, and told me to wait at a specific exit, and to head out at 7:50, or when a red bus with 'tour peru' on it showed up.
At 7:45 a red 'Tour Peru' labelled bus showed up... Marched towards the exit, handed over my ticket to the person controlling the tickets, and she dutifully punched it after inspection...Stupidly, I just handed my luggage to the luggage guy for storage. Waiting for the passenger door to open (I was determined to get a window seat this time, since last time I took a coach, missed out on lots of really nice views because I was in the lane seat) , I overheard some other people saying how they nearly ended up in La Paz...!!! In doubt I rechecked the bus, 'Tour Peru' it def is, but no marking nor sign about destination...I asked another person in line where this bus was going...and to my horror, the answer blurted out was 'La Paz, Bolivia'. NO LONGER ALL GOOD...!!!! I rushed to the luggage guy who gave me a killer stare, and asked me where my bag was...and surely enough, it was buried under a pile of other bags...!!!! and there came a flurry of what must have been colourfully illustrative words about ancestors, mother, sister and baby in Spanish, whilst he struggled to wrestle my bag out of there. I had been apologising profusely till that point, but the beast within had to come out when he persisted with his moaning...!!!!!!!! :P hey..it was a honest mistake... as the saying goes, you really do make an ass of u and me when you assume things...!!!! he finally managed to set my possession free.

Bus to La Paz departed at 8...no bus to Cuzco...till 8.15...!!!! WTF...??? this time, I took the time to ask...and confirmation dropped, 'si senor, cuzco'...relief...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! actual departure time, 8:30...so the Peruvians do practice sintok  Mauritian time..!!!!! allll good again...:)

There were some more delays on the way. Lost 40 minutes because of a road block caused by road works, and another 25 by some strike in one of the small towns we were crossing. there was a small section where we were driving at snail pace because of scattered rocks on the road.... so instead of arriving at 2 pm as expected, 4 pm it was...and the worst of it all...well...8 had forgotten all my snacks in my main bag in the hull(???) of the bus, with only water at hand to wet my throat...!!!!!!

So yeah, as predicted in my prev post, uneventful day...:P

Some pictures from the Coach...