Of bread (well calzone) and circuses

Plaza de Armas

Last night it was Kevin's turn not to sleep.  Puno is just under 4000m, and insomnia is a classic symptom of altitude sickness.  Still a cup of coca tea seemed to do the trick.

We were the last to take breakfast in the hotel - an extravagant affair with pancakes, spanish omelette, cereals and yoghurt.  But the guidebooks tell you not to have big meals at altitude so we were quite abstemious.

Rather than rush around, we decided to rest in the morning and upload a few photos to Facebook.  We also booked a trip to the Uros Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca for tomorrow.  Mysteriously the hotel also changed our room.  We thought that we were going to be put in the broom cupboard as we had booked the hotel on an Expedia ultra-cheapo offer - but no, we were given a room with two double beds and a bath, but no kettle!

Much coca tea was drunk, as well as a few coca leaves sucked - a local cure for altitude sickness, or as they call it here "soroche."

We headed into town around midday but soon returned for sun tan cream as within 5 minutes you could feel the sun's heat.  Duly protected we headed out again in to town.  There isn't much to Puno save a few pizzerias and day trip operators.  We decided to lunch in a small first floor cafe in Lima Street.  "Sweeney Todd" by Tim Burton was on the TV and it says something for the service in the place that we left having seen virtually all of the film.

After a short break at the hotel, we made our way to the Big Top and the circus.  It was due to start at 5.30 so we arrived half an hour early, and sat there alone for the next half hour.  It wasn't the biggest of audiences and we soon knew why.

It was all a bit shabby, with dancers out of sync as the opening.  The funabulist (tight rope artist) slipped in his Batman outfit, the hula hoop girl dropped her hula hoops more than once, and the unicyclist fell of her cycle.  We were quite worried about the lion tamer, but luckily the lions weren't awake for most of the act.

The best bit was a guy on the high hoops and two cyclists on the high wire. Luckily it was all over soon enough.

We headed back in to town to a veggie restaurant recommended in the guides.  It had been raining whilst we were at the circus so that explained why we kept getting wet during the show.  A hole in the Big Top.

K quickly spotted that the veggie place wasn't licensed and suggested we eat elsewhere.  We piled into the first pizzeria we could find.  There was a wood burning oven in the restaurant but the service was unenthusiastic, watched over by an unsmiling Senora.  Dinner (vegetable calzone because the lasagna was off) was equally unenthusiastically eaten and we headed back to the hotel a.s.a.p.