Puno, Peru – A Working Class Town
Standing in garbage, I was looking out over what is considered the world’s largest high-altitude navigational lake – Lake Titicaca. The city of Puno, Peru borders the UNESCO World Heritage site of Lake Titicaca and is shared with Bolivia. I am always amazed how some of the coolest things on the planet can possess such a gritty edge. None the less, the city of Puno borders this Peruvian Altiplano and has been declared a Special Economic Development Zone and offers a realistic look into a Peruvian working town.
At an elevation of 3822 meters/12,565 feet, Puno can have shivering nights, yet layer visitors with severe sun burns because of its high levels of sun exposure throughout the day. During high season between July and August, on average at least one tourist is hospitalized with sun burns, especially after falling asleep on a boat tour on the lake. So be warned, as always in high elevations, wear your sunscreen!
So let’s walk these dusty streets and see what this working town of Puno looks like:
The Plaza de Armas was a nice center to the town.
Yet there was always a reminder of the disparity of wealth in this region –
– and a lot of garbage.
I am always saddened to see water ways look like this.
We stayed at the sweet Marlon’s House Hostal that felt more like a hotel. Our room was on the right, two stories up and they served one of the best breakfast anywhere on our travels.
Our window looked out to rows of what we called the ‘Blue Tarp Market.’ As we walked through more than six long blocks, we realized it was all a Christmas market selling every type of figurine you could imagine.
At the end there was a little fair for the kids.
We got a piece of water melon…
…and continued to walk the streets.
We passed this little recycling bike/truck thing. It never made sense to me that someone would go through all the energy of collecting plastic bottles to recycle without good reason or economic incentive, so why do so many people throw their trash on the streets here, in the United States and all over the world?
After pondering life’s bigger questions we got hungry and we couldn’t resist this restaurant with an enclosed glass balcony over looking the street.
Can you find Chris in this picture?
He looked so happy to stay inside (on the left) and get his picture taken.
As we were eating we heard a band and saw a large group of people walking down the street.
At first we only saw the people playing instruments and didn’t know what was going on. Then we realized it was a funeral procession, but my gosh, people came out for the procession and played so much music.
Even if Puno was a little rough around the edges, it did provide an accurate look into a working class Peruvian town.
Everyone standing in this long line was waiting to cast their vote for the local elections.
As an American, living in what is supposedly one of the world’s most democratic nations, in my lifetime I can’t think of a time I’ve ever seen people standing in line like this waiting to cast their vote.
This was the normal dress for many women of the region.
As we continued walking, we saw sheep being herded down this city street.
Then we found our way to the market.
Oh boy, and there was meat everywhere!
This had to be the luckiest dog in the world. I don’t know how that little thing was able to call dibs on being the only dog in the meat market, but he was loving (and needing) all those scraps.
There were hunks of meat everywhere and it did smell a bit in here.
Look at these bull heads just sitting there!
Do you see the man in this photo?
That is a lot of eggs to try and sell.
Randomly enough, down by the water the town had these figures from the movie Ice Age. So I took a picture. How could I not?
As dirty and unappealing that Puno may be in certain regards, this was home to about 100,000 people. And this photo..
…and video show hundreds of people, dressed up, with polished instruments, smiles on their faces, traditional cuy rattle noise makers, holding their kids on shoulders, singing and dancing, celebrating and enjoying their traditions and cultures.
There’s something to be said for that.
Whether this town is thriving or struggling to survive, to have a community is one of the greatest survival attributes of human nature.
Puno certainly has that going for it.
Coming up next week: Lake Titicaca!
* * *
If you go:
Stay Marlon’s House – try to reserve ahead to avoid disappointment in case they are full.
Puno is known for it’s handicrafts, so it could be a good place to buy gifts.
Although, we didn’t look into this much, the region is recognized for it’s folk lore and the festival, La Virgen de la Candelaria, in February is supposed to be amazing.
Cusco to Puno transportation – We booked with www.turismomer.com and had one of our most favorite guides ever from the entire trip: Koko. He was a short, feisty and passionate Peruvian who spoke good English. We learned so much on that seven hour bus trip.
Puno to Chivay transportation – We booked a 4M bus ($65 sole) directly through our Marlon’s House Hostal and got picked up at the door.
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It’s always sad to see such beautiful areas littered with trash. Overall seems like a nice town in Peru. Nice post with a touch of a down side. Love the video!
Being a border town, Puno embodies that gritty edge. But it is a great base for exploring some really neat things in the area.
Looks like a beautiful city! I love that first picture in your post!
The plaza in the first picture was nice. Puno was a real working class city to spend some time in. Lake Titicaca (coming up next) is one amazing thing to see in the world.
Colorful and captivating story and pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the video, nice addition Vagabond!!:) I took a look at the Hostel and the rooms look wonderful with a beautiful view! The breakfast looked amazing too. So glad you posted the hostel pictures and a link.
Thanks! We are trying to start getting some videos out now. The hostal was pretty sweet. We enjoyed staying there.
Looks as though the majority of this working class town is geared to market sales. Thank you for the insight on this culturally rich high altitude city.
Indeed, there is a lot of markets here. We had never seen a market like that Blue Tarp market selling SO many Christmas figurines.
I was not fond of Puno but found the surrounding area totally awesome! Your video is very good and typical of ethnic celebrations in the town.
Yeah, we pretty much felt the same about Puno, unfortunately, which is frustrating to see because it seems like with just a bit of effort it could clean up and be such an attractive town. We saw/heard about some of the things to do in the surrounding area and they seemed awesome. We never did get to hike up the big hill to see their condor statue.
Absolutely wonderful background for the center of town. The surrounding hills are simply marvelous. The local culture is so diverse and I loved them in your video. Thank you.
The road into Puno is pretty neat, you round this corner and just bamm! There’s this big city below and we just gazed out the window as the bus wound its way down the hill. The cool thing about this video, is we just walked by the celebration by chance. That wasn’t listed in Lonely Planet and there were not a bunch of flyers hanging up around town informing people to go there. All the locals just knew that was happening and for a little step in time, we got to stand along side them and enjoy the festivities.