Chicuito - Puno - Tacna - Arica - La Serena

Chucuito - Puno: 14th March, 18 km
Puno - Tacna: 14th and 15th March
Tacna -Arica - La Serena: 15th and 16th March

We left Chucuito in the afternoon to bike to Puno. There we packed our bikes and equipment and waited for our overnight bus to Tacna. We were somewhat worried about the possibility that the driver would not load our bikes onboard. Then, the old lady in the picture showed up on a riksha. With A LOT of stuff.

The night was a nightmare. Marco took a lot of loperamide.

As soon as we got to Tacna, together with 3 other Peruvians, we took a taxi to Arica. The driver just drove like mad in the straight tarmac strip in the middle of the desert. Scary!

In Arica, Marco found out a bus was about to leave to La Serena and bought the tickets for us and the bikes. Only, they kept saying it was late and would not let us pay with credit card or give us the tickets or receits. Sure enough, after 4 hours and more loperamide a controller jumped onboard and asked for our tickets. A long fight followed until, the controller decided to believe us and start an enquiry about the bloody driver and office guy that tried to reap us off. At least, the adrenalin worked better than loperamide on my guts!

Finally sleeping in a hostal in La Serena, where we took a rest/organizing day. La Serena is a nice quiet city.