Party-time in Puno

Early in the morning, we set out for Puno, which is about three hours from Copacabana, including three-quarters of an hour going through customs. The border crossing was much more relaxed compared to when we crossed into Chile from Argentina. The bus dropped us off to go through Bolivian customs and then we had to walk a couple hundred metres to the Peruvian customs office. At both of the custom offices, we were entertained by a Bolivian woman, who was filled with so much white privilege that she thought that she could skip the lines and push in before others. This was after she had almost barrelled us over to get out of the bus. Karma got her in the end as she hadn't completed the immigration paperwork correctly and was sent away.

We only intended to stop in Puno overnight to break-up the journey from Copacabana to Cuzco. People had warned us that there wasn't much in the town. But fortunately for us, it was pre-carnaval time and the whole town was in party mode. After checking into our hotel, we went in search of food and we happened to stumble upon the pre-carnaval parade. The search for food was temporarily ditched in place of watching the fanfare that was being put on display by each of the different neighbourhoods of Puno. We were mesmerised by the Cholitas as they twirled to the music in an almost hypnotic manner.

But hunger got the better of us and we had to resume our search. As we navigated through the streets, dodging the partygoers, we eventually fulfilled our need for food. Afterwards, we decided to walk to Lake Titicaca to get views from the Peruvian side. Along the lake, people were sprawled as far as we could see. As we weaved through the crowd, we came upon a group of men drinking beer (as were most of the crowd). Within seconds, they had offered us beers and we weren't able to refuse their hospitality. Once we had established that we were Australian and not American, they began asking if they could have photographs with us. Each drunken man posed with us for a photo, which was generally accompanied by a new cup of beer, until we had to politely decline. After much drinking, a bit of dancing and being treated like celebrities, we excused ourselves to explore the festivities. We couldn't have asked for a better welcome to Peru.

Next stop: Cuzco.Read more