The plan for today was to drive through the Andes on an nine hour trip from Cusco to the Titilaka Hotel. But that was not to be.

About 9:30 last night, we got a call from our local travel coordinator. It seems that labor strife with the possibility of violence or a complete shutdown of the roads (1) along our route from Cusco to Titilaka made driving inadvisable. They suggested that we fly instead, first to Lima and then to Juliaca, “only” two hours from our destination.

Sally and I discussed rearranging the itinerary to skip Titilaka, but we were informed that the reservations were not cancellable. After an hour of back and forth, we agreed to the new plan. So we packed last night until 1:00am, then got up at 5:00am for another marathon travel day.

In hindsight, we made some mistakes in planning this trip. The first was one too many stops. The second was too many two-night stays, with a full day of travel in between. Not only was the travel tiring, but we had no time to relax in between the travel days.

The transfer went smoothly, despite the last minute arrangements that needed to be coordinated. We left the Monasterio in Cusco at 6:30am, reached our destination around 5:30pm – the nine hour plan turned into eleven hours. Instead driving through the Andes, we spent most of the time in airports or airplanes.

The Titilaka hotel sits right on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world (2). We are at 12,500’ now, and I can feel the effects. The place is beautiful but small; thirteen rooms. Ours faces east over the lake with a large picture window, and we plan to wake up early and see the sunrise over the lake.

The room itself is small but comfortable and well appointed. It suffers from one of my pet peeves about hotel rooms: no space for unpacking (3). I mean none. Not one drawer or shelf. A closet with room for six hangers. So we’re living out of the suitcases, which is inconvenient. We look out over the lake to the east, so we plan to get up early for a change to watch the sunrise from our bed.

Everything is included here: food, activities, excursions. We had dinner in the beautiful dining room, but the food wasn’t great. Oh well.

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(1) We got confusing and conflicting explanations from different people. We’ll probably never know the truth.

(2) There are all kinds of of caveats to this claim.

(2) My other pet peeve is lack of accessible or functional power outlets. Titilaka is okay in that regard.