Peru - Puno

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David here...

The bus journey from Arequipa was around 6.5 hours and was comfortable enough. We got a light lunch of a chicken sandwich and a cake on the bus plus a drink of tea. It was mid-afternoon when we arrived at Puno, our final destination in Peru. On the shores of Lake Titicaca, it seemed such an evocative place. We'd booked 4 nights, thinking we would find some great hikes, views and space.

Our first impressions of Puno were not great as we passed through on the coach. It looked dusty, drab and like any typical border town. The 15 minute walk to the hotel did nothing to dispel our fears. What had we done? 4 nights here when we might have been better using a couple in the Sacred Valley or Colca regions. We began to rue the lack of research. The first thing we heard as we walked through the bus station was people trying to sell us tickets back to Arequipa. Were they trying to tell us something?

We were staying at the Hotel Balsa Inn and the room was clean with a decent sized bathroom but a bit musty smelling and a low ceiling. No jumping around for me! We felt a bit flat as we freshened up after the journey and did research on food options. We decided we were going for Peruvian seeing as we'd had Indian previously and picked a few possibilities out before heading out again.

We were quite close to the Plaza de Armas, which actually looked quite nice at night all lit up. Off of there was the main street which is pedestrianised. We found a busy and bustling street with lots of shops, restaurants and bars on it. We checked out 2 of the places we'd picked, one of which put us off with the relentless touting before deciding on Colors. Their menu of the day was only 22 soles and it looked cosy and cute. The meal itself consisted of a starter and main plus soft drinks. We ordered soups and Alpaca for me and Filet Mignon for Suzanne. We also ordered Pisco Sours which turned out to be amazing. The meal itself was really tasty, though a few more potatoes with the main would've been good. Overall, we were starting to like Puno.

We wandered round for a bit and stumbled across a little hidden bar with Kiss and AC/DC stickers in the the window. They were playing Peruvian music but we popped in for another Sour and a beer before heading off again. It was a very local bar but we enjoyed it.

We then ended up at Positive bar, which was playing Metallica as we passed. It is a Rock and Reggae bar so you take your chances. We stayed for 2 beers, hearing only one Reggae song before we called it a night and headed back to bed. Not before asking if they showed sport during the day, particularly the Premier League. They said they had many sport channels and to come back tomorrow at 11:30, when Southampton would be kicking off against Bournemouth. They would see if they could put it on for us.

We were up at 07:30 for breakfast the next morning before wandering the town, booking a tour, and basically killing time until 11:20 when we made our way back to Positive bar. This time it was different staff who spoke no English. We asked again about English football and they understood but didn't have it on their channels, despite them kindly going through all of them several times to check. We later found out that we were probably spared anyway as it finished 0-0.

As our plan to watch football was a non-starter we decided to walk to the lake edge. We spent about an hour by the lake, trying to avoid the numerous touts all selling boat tours to the islands on the lake. We did think about going to the islands but the information we read didn't make it sound attractive at all. We could hear thunder in the distance so headed back to the hotel to relax, shower and do some research on the next few destinations.

We went to Sunrise Tacqueria for Mexican food in the evening. Suzanne had mixed Burittos and I had mixed enchiladas, all washed down with a bottle of red wine. The food was lovely and very reasonably priced. We left with grins on our faces. We ended up back at Positive bar for a drink but heard far too much reggae this time, so we only stayed for one beer before heading back for a reasonably early night.

The next day started with us clambering up to a viewpoint to get a higher look of the town and lake. We were up there about 15 minutes before heading back down and into Plaza de Armas. When we passed through earlier the roads were blocked off and the Police were setting something up. Sure enough we got down there just as the Army, Police, Navy and official dignitaries started marching through the square with a band playing. We stayed and watched for about an hour before sitting down and enjoying a snack of a chicken tamale each. We later found out that there is some kind of parade every Sunday in the square. Sometimes schools, sometimes other agencies. We just struck lucky that we got the Military and Police force. It was an enjoyable sight to see, especially the soldiers marching past singing (we guess) the Peruvian National anthem.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with the tour of the pre-Inca burial towers at Stillustani. We were collected at our hotel and a minivan picked us up at Plaza de Armas. There were about 10 of us on the tour and it took about an hour to get to the site. There were a few stalls on the way to the entrance but you can tell it is still low season. The towers themselves are pretty impressive and are still in the process of being restored. What was an added bonus was seeing the surrounding scenery and lagoon. It's how we imagined Lake Titicaca was going to look like. As we went round a couple of storms swung our way, bringing with them some light rain and some amazing lightning. There was so much electricity in the air it was making peoples hair stand on end. We've never seen that before.

The only thing that marred the tour was the stopping off on the way back at a typical Peruvian family home to take a look around. The family were waiting outside the house with llamas and alpacas to have pictures with before everyone going into the courtyard to try some typical food, all for a donation of course. We felt that it was a bit exploitative and it made us feel uncomfortable so we stayed by the van until it was time to move on back to Puno.

We ended up back at Sunrise Taqueria for our dinner, which again was very nice, especially the home-made nachos. We then stumbled across a bar called Rockeros, which promised a Heavy Metal party, so in we went. It was a cosy little place with portraits of people from the world of Rock along with traditional Peruvian cloths and colours. The music wasn't great at first (INXS for example) but soon enough we were loudly singing along to Iron Maiden (it's always Maiden), Manowar and Judas Priest. We ended up staying until we had drunk the bar dry of the beer we were on before heading off to bed.

The next day was a slow start, mainly due to the previous heavy evening. Our plan was to walk north of Puno and into the Lake Titicaca reserve. We walked for about 2.5 hours following a train line out of town and through smaller villages and eventually the countryside. We found a little monument to stop at to take in the scenery and enjoy the peace. While there we saw a small bird of prey on top of a tree next to us before 3 dogs came over to join us. We stayed about 20 minutes before thunder was heard and we decided to head back.

As we started out I spotted a huge, black bird of prey sitting in another tree. As we watched, a smaller bird started to divebomb it to get it to move along, which it did before I could get any photos. The walk back was cooler as the clouds came over but we didn't get rained on. Not the most beautiful walk we've done in Peru but it was good to leave the city and see something different.

The evening started out at Valeria restaurant where we had the tourist menu at 20 soles for a 3 course meal and soft drink. Mine was pretty good (Quinoa soup, Lomo Saltado de Alpaca and Bananas in condensed milk) but Suzanne really struck out with her Asparagus soup being too salty, main course being too dry as there was no sauce or gravy on it (dry rice, veg and chicken) and the chocolate cake again was so dry. Cheap meal though at just over £13 for both of us. We were then sensible and went back to the hotel for an early night as we had a bus to catch the next morning.

4 nights in Puno was far too long. We enjoyed ourselves but got lucky on the Sunday stumbling onto the parade in the main plaza. Lake Titicaca was also a big disappointment as it was a long walk to get to the litter strewn shore and the scenery was pretty pathetic from this side. The upside to Puno is the choice of restaurants and bars and without them we wouldn't have enjoyed ourselves half as much.

We have loved Peru. It has been our favorite country so far on this trip. It has been warm, welcoming and friendly. The scenery has been stunning nearly every step of the way and we've enjoyed the bulk of the food we've had. The climate for me has been perfect with nice warm days and cooler evenings. We cannot recommend Peru highly enough. We suspect we may come back here in the future.

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