Lake Titicaca & Puno

Quite literally described as “a dump” by our pseudo mom in Arequipa, Puno seemed to stretch forever as our bus trundled and wound its way through the crowded streets. Filled with food carts, moped powered rickshaws and seemingly wild dogs we had our doubts about this exit city of Peru as well. But once we finally arrived at our destination and made our way to the hostel we found that the main area of the city was charmingly quaint and inviting. Setting up an impromptu taxi tour of the city we were driven up the hills that stretched from Lake Titicaca to some seemingly nearly abandoned vantage points where the lake seemed to stretch on like the ocean. Seeing the highest navigable lake in the world was actually quite staggering as one remembers referencing “Lake Titicaca” as a child alongside other nouns like Timbuktu and other fancifully distant lands. Although the city is a bit rough around the edges (like many others of its ilk) we couldn’t help enjoying the friendly attitudes of everyone we met and the incredibly simplistic and rustically tasty foods.

Setting up an obligatory tour of the world famous reed islands that make Puno and Lake Titicaca famous, we excitedly set out with our guide and other tourists to see how the indigenous people of the area have carved out a way of life on such a rickety and unstable form of “ground”. Touristy and overdone, the well practiced presentation by the guide and the people who lived on the floating reed islands was still endearing and one can’t help but feel the need to buy up some souvenirs and other handmade wares made by the people of the floating islands. Eating the reeds and seeing their way of life really put a lot of things into perspective and their seemingly happy go lucky and always smiling nature will stick with me for a very long time. Although our stay in Puno was short, it was definitely an experience I will never forget.

Written by AJ Kwong