Puno and Juliaca

Juliaca we only saw briefly off the bus. It was hideous. Large with many short buildings made of red brick, all of which are unfinished. Every roof had metal wires sticking out proving to the government that it isn't complete and thus they don't need to pay tax for it. There are virtually no cars in that city and all the traffic is made up of bicycles. The city is up at 4000m so nothing grows there. It is one of the ugliest cities I have ever seen.

Puno is slightly better. Although it has the same look of Juliaca with its unfinished buildings, it is smaller and built on a hill between 3800m and 4000m and right on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Slightly more cars in this city but they're all the exact same model of a station wagon Toyota and their all taxis. The rest of the traffic consists of bicycle taxis. Impressive to think one of these guys can bike uphill with two people in the front up at 4000m. The streets in Puno are very narrow with puny sidewalks making it difficult for both cars and people to walk on them.

We had arrived to Puno by bus and were greeted with a few taxis offering rides. I went away from the large group of taxi drivers and one of them followed offering a ride for 3 soles. I made a face as if that's too much and he dropped the price to 2 soles. He was of course another tour salesperson and tried to offer us things on the cab ride to our hotel. First thing he said when we told him the hotel we're going to, was that the hotel is closed for repairs but he knows of a better hotel and a cheaper price anyways. I nodded my head thinking he was yet another liar so I just insisted he take us there. Arriving at Hotel Europa it turned out to be actually closed but I was not going to be bothered with whatever he had to offer so we just got out of the cab and told him we're not interested in anything he has to offer. We knew there were other hotels nearby so we walked to the one we knew across the street.

Hotel Presidente had a nice little hotel manager that looks and talks just like my grandpa (short, skinny and very energetic and friendly). The price listed was 40 soles a night but he offered us a room for 30 soles. We asked to go see it first. He showed us three rooms, one of which had a private hot shower and bathroom and then he dropped the price to 25 soles. So we agreed to it. Business was slow in Puno. They had a strike and demonstrations the week before and tourism was at an all time low so all hotels were desperate for business. The room we got was a bit of a hole. The walls were quite dirty but it had a big window overlooking an unfinished roof outside which made it great. The bathroom was quite gross. The shower was right above the toilet so when you showered the whole bathroom would be wet and since drainage was another problem, it was constantly wet and smelled bad.

That evening we got out and booked a tour to visit the islands of lake Titicaca the next two days. First day was to be spent visiting the floating islands Uros and then spending the evening on Amantani Island and staying over at a family's house. The day after was to be spent exploring Tquile Island.

That evening we felt great walking around Puno. Finally here was a city where we didn't get harassed by people trying to sell us stuff. That was until we found the touristy street where the harassment was at its usual. We had pizza at one of the restaurants. That was to be our main dinner every night there. Later we went to sleep and I woke up in the morning with a stiff neck. The bed was concave and as such extremely uncomfortable. We then left on our trip to the Islands and came back the next day in the evening.

Before leaving for the islands we heard of huge demonstrations in Arequipa and that it was inaccessible. It would seem the protests that we tried to avoid by not going to Bolivia have moved to Peru. Bolivia was perfectly at peace again. Luckily that strike and protests ended the day we returned from the Islands. Just in time for us to go there. We spent another day in Puno as there were a couple more things to see. We still wanted to see the Templo de Fertilidad and Sillustani.

For the temple of fertility we had to take the Colectivo to the city of Chucuito, twenty minutes away. We first took a bike taxi to the street where the Colectivos leave from. We were told the bike taxis cost 1 sol per person so when we got on the bike the rider showed us his hand and said 1 sol and I repeated that. We had a fun but a little scary ride downhill on the bike. It was uneventful though. We didn't get run over by any cars. Once we reached the bus terminal the bike taxi rider asked for 5 soles, lying to us that he said 5 when he raised his hand. I was quite annoyed and argued with him for a little bit. Eventually I just gave up and gave him the 5 soles. I was pretty pissed off but had no will to argue further for so little money. We then got on a Colectivo to Chucuito. The van was completely filled with locals. We didn't really know where Chucuito was but luckily one of the locals on the van was kind enough to inform the driver for us once we got there. Had she not told him we may have ended up in some other unknown city. The ride cost us 1 sol each and it took about 20 minutes. Once in Chucuito we asked a couple of the locals where the temple was and they pointed us in the right direction. We reached it and started laughing at how unimpressive and pathetic it was. Our guide book had it listed as one of the 30 things that must be seen in Peru. The temple was supposed to have rows upon rows of penises made of stone. We imagined it to be some big building filled with them. It turned out to be a really small stone structure with about 3 or 4 penises and a bunch of other decapitated ones. We took one picture and left on the Colectivo back to Puno.

Back in Puno I was starting to get a bit depressed. I found the city ugly and was getting a bit tired of not having proper bathroom facilities. I also found the city quite claustrophobic. At the same time my throat was starting to bother me and it seemed I picked up a cold from one of the kids on the Island of Amantani. We walked a bit around the city and we went up seeking higher ground. We hiked up to a viewpoint over the city and the lake. My claustrophobia seemed to get diminished slightly. I feel happier when I'm in the mountains away from the enclosing cities and I guess being in such an ugly city didn't help. Luckily the next day we were on a bus to Arequipa.

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