Leg Time - 5:20.22
Total Distance - 3681.94km
I actually arrived in Puno yesterday, but didn't get round to posting the info up. Anyway, I am now in Peru, my fourth and final country. I am planning to finish the bike ride in Cuzco, although as I have mentioned before I am now on a bit of a tight schedule and hope to make it there by Thursday. It's going to be pretty tough as it is, but worryingly, there seems to be some ambiguity in the distance between Puno and Cuzco; my map claims it's some 360km, whereas my Footprints guide (99% of the time on the ball) and several Peruvian websites think it's more like 388km. Not much of a difference, I hear you say, except that it is. Or, at least, it may be. You see, my leg tomorrow is a measely 45km, which means I will have to cover 100+km a day for the following three days. If the 28km difference is spread out over the three legs, it won't be a problem, but if I find myself having to cycle 130km in a day as opposed to 110km at 3500m above sea level, then it could be a problem, particularly cycling westwards and with the sun setting at 6pm (after 5 it becomes nigh on impossible, even with sunglasses). And there is also a pass at 4251m during one of the 100km legs, so all in all, it should be a trying final strech. Good-oh.
Plus, there is also the added pressure of having to make it to a town in time to have dinner. Peruvians, it would seem, eat early (5-6pm), so getting a meal at a restaurant in small towns at 8pm is pretty much impossible, as I found out the other day. Instead, I had to make do with some (frankly, suspicious) fried chicken and some weird giant corn thing from a street vendor. Fortunately, it didn't have the effects that most street vendor produce had in La Paz (and the details of which I shalln't go into here...), but I couldn't help but feel that a meal served in a plastic bag (no, really), isn't quite the satisfying feast a cyclist needs.
Plus, there is also the added pressure of having to make it to a town in time to have dinner. Peruvians, it would seem, eat early (5-6pm), so getting a meal at a restaurant in small towns at 8pm is pretty much impossible, as I found out the other day. Instead, I had to make do with some (frankly, suspicious) fried chicken and some weird giant corn thing from a street vendor. Fortunately, it didn't have the effects that most street vendor produce had in La Paz (and the details of which I shalln't go into here...), but I couldn't help but feel that a meal served in a plastic bag (no, really), isn't quite the satisfying feast a cyclist needs.
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