We got up early for our 7:15 departure from the hotel and enjoyed breakfast in the hotel dining room. However, when the bus hadn't arrived by 7:30, the receptionist mentioned that there was a transportation strike that day and perhaps it would be best to contact our travel agent. Actually, now that she mentioned it... it did seem quite quiet outside. There wasn't a taxi to be found and I hadn't heard a single bus pass by on the busy street outside the hotel. After a bunch of back and forth conversations with our "difficult to find" travel agent, it turns out that our bus had left the night before and we were stuck in Cuzco for the day.

There certainly could be worse places to be stuck! We hung out in the beautiful Plaza de Armas watching the world go by and enjoyed a few beers in one of the balcony restaurants that overlook the square. It was a great place to watch the strike which we gather (from several conversations with locals) was over the high price of petrol and the country's low wages. If you think you're underpaid, imagine what life would be like living in Peru where teachers make under $200 per month and the average taxi driver only earns 50 cents for a 5 mile trip. It's estimated that over 50% of Peruvians live in poverty and strikes are a way of getting companies to share a higher percentage of the incredibly lucrative tourist dollars with the average worker. More power to them!

A day delayed, our rescheduled tourist bus departed the next morning on time and rambled down the road from Cuzco to Puno stopping at a the points of interest along the way. It's a nice way to travel despite the fact that we had a couple "Ugly Americans" on board who complained about everything and anything. Sure, there were some issues. We'd been promised a bus with a bathroom, but due to the strike and an oversold situaiton we ended up on an bus (still of high quality) that didn't have a toilet. However, we made frequent stops along the way where there were free facilities, so we were a bit puzzled by the bloke who was loud, whiny and whingy for the whole 8 hours. Mark has some choice names for this guy, if anyone's interested....

We really enjoyed a few of the stops along the way. Around an hour outside of Cuzco we stopped at a beautiful colonial church seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The village of Andahuaulas is tiny but it has a beautiful baroque cathedral built in the 16th century. We've seen a lot of churches, but this one was special for the incredibly ornate decorations and the fact that it was simply in the middle of nowhere. Our bus also stopped at some interesting archeological sites and a museum but the traditional house was really interesting as not only did we see how locals live (most with future dinner bound guinea pigs running around the house) but also because I was able to feed a baby alpaca!

Shortly after we arrived in Puno, we headed out to dinner where Mark enjoyed grilled Alpaca steak for dinner. Tomorrow (assuming there's not a boatman strike) we'll explore Lake Titicaca and book onward travel to La Paz Bolivia.