Puno and Tacna, Peru

Puno, Peru
Puno is popular mostly because it sits right on the border of Bolivia and on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. There isn’t really much in the way of interesting things to see in the city itself. Most people are there for one of two reasons: visiting the lake, or crossing to Bolivia. The exception is during the first week of February when Puno hosts the Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria (a four day series of parades). During this time the city doubles in size as it hosts several thousand people from surrounding areas.

Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria
Virgin of the Candles? I’m not Catholic and I’ve never heard of it, but it is a big event in Puno. In the biggest day of the event, one of the largest parades I’ve heard of takes place. It begins at 8am and continues until after midnight usually wrapping up around 1pm. Think about it, that’s about 17 hours of parade with no repeats. The parade consists of 86 groups, each group having a band of musicians and three or four groups of dancers. I’m guessing there are bigger parades out there, but I’ve never heard of anything this large. The variety of costumes was fantastic and it was really fun to see each group doing dances as they went through the streets. One thing that was rather interesting to me was they all played the exact same musical tune–every single one of them. I’m guessing it must have to do with the theme of of the parade, but I never did quite find out. Imagine the same tune played by 86 groups for 17 hours. Wow!

Floating Islands in Lake Titicaca (huge tourist scam)

The Uro tribe has been building floating islands in Lake Titicaca for generations. These man-made floating islands are pretty cool and intriguing to see. Unfortunately the entire experience is very tarnished and damaged by the way the whole things is setup. Basically you agree to pay about $6 to take a 20 passenger boat to and from the islands where you’ll see one family’s island and the “capitol” island (roundtrip). Sounds like a good deal right? Once you arrive you get a 10 minute presentation with five minutes devoted to asking which country everyone comes from. They tell you the local Uro tribe lives on these islands year round and children attend a school on the big island. Ironically, all the islands are abandoned except those with tourists. There are no beds in the huts. They have no kitchens. There is nobody on these islands except people working in the gift shops. They then ask the group to pass around souvenirs they sell in their gift shop with a detailed explanation of each. That wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t ask you next to follow you into a hut on the island (which is a gift shop) and then hand you the same items again. They place each item in your hand and ask if you like it. “Want to buy?” No thanks. You leave the hut and they direct you to the outdoor thatched awning with, surprise, yet more gift shop goods. They hand you a woven cloth, “You like?” No thanks. At that point most people wander to explore for a few minutes and then walk back to the boat. The locals then tell you that you are on the wrong boat and the funky looking reed boat is about to leave for the capitol island. For five soles ($1) you can ride on it. No thanks. Everyone stays. Then we are told the reed boat is leaving soon and that our boat would not depart for one to two hours! Almost everyone pays the 5 soles just to get off the island and not wait two hours. A few of us smarter folks stay and insist we will wait two hours refusing to pay $1 on principle. The reed boat departs and no surprise, five minutes later the big tourist boat follows. It was all a scam. The capitol island is–wait for it–another set of gift shops with additional food cafes selling sandwiches and or foods and drinks. At this point most of the tourists are disgusted and get on the boats to return. From the reviews, about 95% of the tourists have a bad experience there, which is really sad because with a slight change in the tactics, this could have been an amazing experience!

Changing Routes: Giving up on Bolivia
My original plans were to try to see all the countries in South America and this included Bolivia. However, I ran into a few hurdles trying to get into Bolivia, which ultimately forced me to give up on going there. Basically Bolivia has lots of requirements only for Americans like $160 entry fee, photos, proof of accommodations, bank statements, itinerary, yellow fever shot, duplicate photos, etc. In addition truckers were on strike shutting down buses into Bolivia near the border at Puno. So, ultimately I changed my route to go directly south to Chile via the border town of Tacna.

Tacna, Peru
Like Puno, Tacna is only popular for one reason: it is the closest border city to Chile. It is super popular with Chileans who go there for cheap dental, optical and dermatological treatments (similar to Americans going to Mexico). It is not a standard entry point for gringos entering Chile, so for my three days there I saw zero, none, nada, other gringos. I was the one and only white guy wandering around a small city of latinos. I was warmly received with a lot of smiles and posed for a couple of photos with latinos who seemed to find my height (or whiteness) interesting.

Yellow Fever in Tacna
In order to visit the Amazon you need to have a Yellow Fever vaccination (I am planning on seeing the Amazon at some point). Ironically, after trying for days to get my Yellow Fever shot in both Cusco and Puno, I was able to get the shot in under 45 minutes in Tacna. I went to the tourist info place (called iPeru) and they called ahead to the hospital. When I arrived a senior staff member greeted me and walked me to the billing department so I could pay, then to the clinic area where I they put me in line ahead of about 30 locals (I felt really weird about that). I got my shot then went to a third office for documents to show I had the vaccination.

Costs in Puno
I was there during a festival, so the hostel prices were about double. Below is a break down:
Hostel: $17/night dorm bed (way overpriced for a terrible hostel).
Food: $3 meal for lunch or dinner

Costs in Tacna
Below is a break down of costs in Tacna:
Hostel: $8/night (private room… nice!).
Food: $3 meal for lunch or dinner