Peru (2019)
Inhalt/Content
Puno, Lake Titicaca and no escape from mass tourism
From Cusco we went in an almost completely empty luxury bus to Puno at Lake Titicaca. The trip took a little longer than expected, as in some places the traffic jammed or streets were completely closed due to carnival celebrations, as we already experienced them in Abancay. Puno is with 3827 metres above sea level again a good piece higher than Cusco. So we were surprised that the landscape became flatter and flatter the closer we came to our destination. Moreover, we noticed that there were more road controls by the police, even though our bus was spared from them. Probably because of the proximity to Bolivia road controls were established since drug smuggling is of course also a big problem in Peru. Unfortunately, it came during our trip to a very unpleasant incident. Generally there are street dogs in Peru pretty much everywhere. Some of them are rather quiet, but there are also some that you should keep away from. Either way you can just feel sorry for the street dogs in Peru. It happened more often that dogs ran along the roadside. Thus also a small black dog puppy sat at the side. Because of the high number of dogs one thinks at first nothing of it, especially since he was also not on the street, but only beside it. This changed unfortunately exactly in the moment when our bus should pass him. All of a sudden the puppy jumped onto the street directly in front of our bus. The bus driver had absolutely no chance to hit the brake on time and so the puppy was run over by the bus. A few meters away there was one of the many police patrols. The policemen saw the incident and made the bus driver drive on. Probably they cleared the puppy away afterwards. Especially for me as a dog fan it was a huge shock. When I later told my mother about it on the phone, she comforted me with the words that this was of course cruel, but the puppy would most likely not have had a good life on the streets of Peru and so he was at least saved from this fate, albeit in a very brutal way. Of course this doesn’t make it any better, but when I think back to the Peruvian street dogs, I still have to agree with her to a certain extent.
The day after arrival we spent exploring the city. Our first destination was a small museum consisting of two floors. On the first floor you learned everything about coca leaves. There were also really cool products to buy, but unfortunately we were not allowed to bring any of them to Germany. On the second floor there was information about traditional costumes that were worn in Puno for the Calendaria, a big festivity, and we could even try on some costumes. Since we were the only people on the floor anyway, it wasn’t embarrassing and the staff was happy to take pictures of us. On the Plaza de Armas of Puno there were traditional dances due to the carnival festivities. We decided to climb one of the several viewpoints of Puno to get an overview of the city before we walked down to the shore of the world-famous Lake Titicaca. Here was a long and beautiful promenade with a certain tourist infrastructure with restaurants, souvenir shops and a lady with a falcon on her arm who earned her money by taking pictures with tourists. But our highlight was something else. There was a long line of pedal boats. What all these boats had in common was that they either had a swan head on the bow in the classic way or Pikachu, Son Goku and other well-known characters. I decided to add pedal boating on Lake Titicaca to my bucket list and put it into action immediately. Unfortunately we “only” got a classic pedal boat with a swan head, but it was still a very funny and somehow slightly surreal experience.
For the next day we booked in our hotel a tour to Uros, the floating islands on Lake Titicaca. Afterwards we should go to Taquile, a real island in the middle of the lake. Unfortunately, the tour was rather a flop. On the boat, we were already welcomed by a panpipe player, who after his unasked for concert straight outstretched his hand for a tip. Uros was in itself still quite interesting, as we were explained here how the artificial straw islands were originated and we were also allowed to drive one of the straw boats ourselves. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t really play along and it rained the whole time. Additionally, when entering the islands one got relatively fast unasked some handicrafts in the hand that the locals tried to make money with. On Tequile there should be a dinner at a local family and of course there was again a stand with souvenirs next to the dining table. The food itself tasted very good, the only problem was that the fish I ordered had a lot of bones, but we had only little time to eat. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to eat up in the short time while Kevin got an omelette and was already done. We only had a short time to see the rest of the island, which consisted of a nice village square and other viewing platforms. But in the end, this tour combined everything I don’t like about such organized tours: time pressure paired with constant unwanted sales calls. In the end, I am not sure if I would recommend a visit to Puno. At the most for pedal boating on the Titicaca Lake.
