Puno: Round One

Puno is famous for being on the edge of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. With my parents, we spent one day in Puno, but didn’t go onto the lake, which is irregular for tourists in these parts. The main draw is going onto the lake. Alan and I are returning to Puno next week, and we’ll go out to the islands on the Peruvian side of the lake then. (Half of the lake is in Bolivia, and Bolivia requires US citizens to have a travel visa and pay a fine to enter their country, so we won’t go to the popular Islas del Sol y de la Luna.)

Our first impression of Puno was not great. It was dark when we got off our bus from Chivay, and we were encouraged by our guide books and the tour guide on our bus not to walk to our hostel for safety reasons. We took a taxi, but after spending some time in the city I am certain we would have been fine to walk. Nevertheless, the city seemed dirty, crowded, touristy, and unauthentic our first evening there. 

It’s lucky that Alan and I are coming back to Puno, because Alan spent our Puno day in bed sick. My parents and I walked around the city all day. There is a nice sidewalk along the front of Lake Titicaca, so we started our morning on it. Bright green algae covered the water for the first hundred or so meters, and we saw lots of birds, mostly ducks. From the dock, we couldn’t see the islands well. We weren’t harassed too much by tour guides or venders, likely because boats to the islands leave early in the morning, and because tourists don’t often spend time in Puno itself.

Lake Titicaca from Puno's lakefront

Lookit the algae!

People and animals hanging out on the lakefront

Ducks snoozing in algae

Between the lake and our hostel was a huge daily market, an open-air and indoor combo.  The main product for sale was potatoes of various types and various levels of preparation. The potatoes are piled on tarps on the ground, an Inca or Aymara (pre-Inca) woman squatting next to it. Of course, all types of fruits, vegetables, and meat were there too, as well as hardware and textiles. This market was enormous, and disappeared in the afternoon.

A type of cucumber, supposedly. 

Prepared for stuffed peppers

After checking on Alan, taking showers (Warm! Thanks, solar energy!), and eating lunch, we walked through an artisan market. Then we solicited a mototaxi to pull the three of us up to the highest road in Puno. The poor machine struggled with our weight, but got us up there for only 4 soles (US$1-2).

From this point, we could walk up 600-odd steps to a statue of a condor. This afforded us a really great view of the city, and of Lake Titicaca. Here we could see the Uros islands.

We spent the afternoon sitting in the Plaza de Armas and walking around the pedestrian-only downtown streets.

Saturday morning, Alan was feeling much better. We walked the short distance from our hostel to the bus station, and boarded a strictly-tourists train. It was very fancy, with tablecloths, armchairs, and all the water and coffee we could drink (which was a very good thing, considering that Dad’s UV water purifier stopped working recently). The train hadn’t even made it to the edge of Lake Titicaca before hitting some rocks sloppily left on the tracks from a construction site. The front engine derailed. We waited an hour or so for the company to bring a replacement engine. It was neat to see all the small farms on the way. We got into Cusco without further event.

Two boys watching our train get a replacement engine.

Our train in a lovely location between Puno and Cusco

Some of the (minor) damage done to the train.

Isn't Peru beautiful!?

Yes, yes it is.

We saw a lot of agricultural land.

And some villages. Kids would come running up to our train and wave