........we found ourselves in times of trouble, and mother Mary came to us.........

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Get ready - this is gonna blow your socks off..................

We get up at about 6:30am to meet Mary, to goto the passport office. 7am South American time now translates to 11am. The streets of Puno are busy with speakers in the town´s squares preparing for today´s 5pm meeting to resolve the problems.......but not another tourist face to be seen. Passport office is closed, Mary persists (South American style) and eventually we enter via the garage and get our stamps. Lunch is soup from a Peruvian restaurant - lovely, and only GBP7 with drinks. Holiday budget is going well, you can´t spend much when you are sat on top of a boat in the middle of a lake, I guess........

Back to hotel and wait to meet Mary at 3:30 for trip to discuss a trip to Uros Islands (Lake Titicaca), where local people live very traditional and simple lives. Planned to stay on the lake tonight with a family, but as the port is closed, our trip is cancelled. No Mary at 3:30, no Mary at 3:45, no Mary at 4pm.........????? We call Mary, she comes and tells us of great trouble in the town, the council have met but no solution has been found......."go to your rooms and wait - I call you later". Hotel manager closes iron shutters accross doors and windows. It occurs to us at this time that we are the only people staying in the hotel.........????????

We watch angry scenes in the street below our hotel and down the main street. Gangs of men chanting and waiving sticks and flags.................more men...................and more men. We stay behind net curtains and watch and listen to windows being smashed further up the street. Roadside vendors pack-up their stalls and flea. An hour passes and the manager knocks................."we take you to top-floor room, come quickly"....................quickly we close the cases and backpacks and go upstairs to a top-floor room with no front-facing windows...........not that great a room really if you had paid full-price for it we think...........!!!!..........More smashed glass, more chanting, more running gangs...........we listen. We lock ourselves in and turn lights out. 2 hours later (7pm) their is a (friendly) knock on the door - Mary. She hasn´t come to tell us of the timetable of Uros Island trips tomorrow but says (best South American accent everyone please) "it is not safe, if you want - I have car tonight for you......for town of Juliaca, then Cusco, it leave at 2am.........my friend take you.......I think you go, Police come tomorrow, very dangerous for tourist.............maybe US$90 each.........maybe little more/maybe less...............all roads blocked, port closed, airport closed, train closed..................you go.........???"...........(clear Yorkshire accents) "WE GO".

2am and Mary is back...............we creep down 4 flights of stairs to reception. Not a sound or a person on the streets........(Mary - "they all take-a the alcohol today,all sleep now.....it safe for you").

Hotel Manager - your bill sir...............money exchanges........................."oh sir - maybe the minibar also too".....????...............can you imagine the response he gets as I show him his advertising card that says "good location on safe street"....................quite.

......... Somebody walks up the street mumbling......................lights go out...............nobody dare breath, we just stand motionless........................he stumbles past and staggers on up the road (Mary - "the alcohol............it safe for you now"). Mary's phone rings, an unlit minibus without its engine on rolls up outside the hotel, feels like we are living out a WW11 movie.................frightening for us now, we´re going it alone for the first time. We climb in, 6 people + 2 drivers aready in, nobody looks or says anything. Our money is in different places around our person and our bags - reminds me of when I used to hide my cigarettes from the bigger-boys at school, figured then that I knew the treament we would get if stopped and searched.

Without lights we navigate the streets and using backroads we ascend the town (no others cars around) and leave by the back exit. We go cross-country, and I mean cross-country not on roads but on farmers tracks. For 90mins we go at maybe 5mph max, keep getting out and walking so bus doesn´t stick in divets...............it´s 3am, we´re on extreme rural moorland, in god-knows where, with the language barrier, with strangers, it´s freezing, no-idea where we are actually going, wild dogs (assumed dogs) howling and barking, at the mercy of anybody who finds us................can you even begin to imgine how it felt.............????............the loneliest, scariest, and craziet moment ever we think. We walk, we ride, we walk, we ride...................

(Black-Eyed Peas on radio - "Time of my life")

Do we have a spare tyre, just in case........(repeated thought).........???.............Now surely this must be "Darkest Peru"..........???............Is this how it was for Christopher Plumber and Julie Andrews.......????At least we didn´t have 7 children in tow...................the stuff that goes through your head at a time like this....................

Road lights in the distance..............and two huge white lights in several places along the road. We meet the road and travel towards the white lights (artic-lorry at road block). Gang (20) men stood around a burning oil-drum, drinking, and ready to drive at us if we get too close. Our driver gets out and meets their head-guy.........5mins.................driver returns............."we lucky, we go"................................money must have exchanged.....(not like in t´84 Miners strike when principles meant for summet" (John)................"not now John" (Denise).

5 maybe 6 more roadblocks, the same happens....................and then we are in Juliaca and relative safey..................the relief is incredible...................and the reality of what we have just endured begin to dawn......................It's 5am. We sleep, we ride, we sleep, we ride. It´s 11am and we reach Cusco and find the hotel we left last week...........there are rooms..............we rest-

Mary - god bless you.

J+D

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Comments

[Melissa (US)]

Loving reading your blog!
Hi. I've been reading your blog, as I'm planning my own solo trip to Cuzco-Puno next fall. I'm enjoying your travels.

[JD and Coke]

Cusco
Glad you like it. Stay tuned JC