When in Doubt, Travel: Puno

October 31st - November 1st

Child safety, or really anyone's safety, is not a priority for most transport buses. It is all about maximizing the number of people you can bring for the price of one. Thus, on our bus ride to Puno, there were children everywhere! Most of them sleep on their mothers, but if there are too many, the aisle is the next best place. The woman on the opposite aisle seat from Hannah had two children, one of whom spent the majority of his time sleeping on Hannah's leg/feet and on the newspaper that was laid over a large amount of unidentified liquid in the middle of the aisle. At the bathroom stops, most of the mothers would hurry off the bus (without their children) and return with a very pungent carne/pork, rice, and bean combo in a plastic bag, from which they would all take turns picking small handfuls. Remember cringing while watching a baby or toddler eat spaghetti for the first time - smearing the tomato sauce all over the placemat before running their hands through their hair, on their shirt, and all over their face repeatedly? There is lots of that here. Also, another form of entertainment on bus rides are the salesmen, who board the bus and give a 45-minute speech about the importance of health and then only sell hard candies. Some sell tea or magic pills that “cleanse your body and rid it of toxins” (probably just laxatives), but many swear that hard candies will make you the healthiest being on your block.

We had a very rainy arrival into Puno that produced a magnificently full double-rainbow. Having traveled this far, Hannah and I have become quite proficient in the art of choosing a price and sticking with it until the other party caves. Since el centro was only 1.5km away, we decided 3 Soles (about $1) would be the appropriate fare. We walked over to some taxis nearby and began haggling – after two back-and-forths, S/3.50 seemed to be his final offer because “we had to pay S/0.50 to get into this parking lot.” So, we walked outside of the parking lot and caught a cab for S/3 to the center of town. Luck stayed with us as we found a private room with two double beds, its own bathroom, toilet paper, and towels for less than it would have cost us to stay in a hostel! The best part of the room was random space that jutted out from the main room, about the size of a toddler's race car bed, but inevitably had no purpose except to amuse us (apparently, pretty easy to do).

Once settled, we headed out to enjoy the Halloween festivities and watch all the adorable children in their ridiculous costumes. There were lots of witches, Spidermen, Disney princesses, Smurfs, and gory-masked older kids. Halloween in Puno is a very community-oriented event – kids trick-or-treat in the tiendas and businesses along the main drag of town. We treated ourselves to delicious dinner of a pepper, pumpkin, and tomato pizza, hot chocolate, and a mixed fruit salad for dessert! The best part – being on the restaurant's second floor against the balcony that overlooked the entrance, thus allowing us to watch the hordes of children that would cram into the establishment, their plastic jack-o-lanterns raised triumphantly in the air as they exited. Initially, the restaurant was not participating, but after about 30 minutes of consistent questioning by all passing trick-or-treaters, an employee finally ran out and bought some hard candies to appease the masses.

Aerial view of the masses in the entryway of the restaurant.

We headed towards their central park to observe the chaos and, after much observation, decided the winner of the “Best Vendor Capitalizing on Their Current Situation” went to those selling light up bouncy/massage-y balls and glow-in-the-dark devil's horns. Clearly, there is no rhyme or reason to most successes. However, the losing entrepreneur was quite evident – the men who hauled oversized lions and horses to the main square for children to pose with or on, and then would encourage parents to take pictures of their little ones with these “exotic animals” for a small fee. That was simply hard to watch. We were out there for about 30 minutes, and in that time, only one family decided it was worth the money to see their little flower sitting on a lion. On the walk back to our room, we saw the best outfit of the night – a mini-Michael Jackson (single white glove and all) being carried by his father.

Best tiny human costume...ever.

Apparently, Halloween is an incredibly taxing holiday...so much so, that Peruvians require a few more weekdays to recover? We discovered this the next morning, much to our chagrin. Almost all shops, except small tiendas (convenience-esque stores), were closed for this semi-unnecessary recovery “holiday.” Most importantly, that meant the Bolivian consulate was closed for the next few days, preventing us from saving $35 on their rather expensive entry tax. Visa fail! Making a split second decision at 10:58 to leave for Copacabana, Bolivia, we ran back to the “hotel”in order to check out before 11am. This is where having a travel partner is incredibly beneficial – one can pack at lightning speed while the other returns the keys and “checks out.” Being ER nurses, Hannah and I innately hope for the best but prepare for the worst. The same applies for traveling. So, when we boarded a bus of all gringos, within 2 minutes after settling in our seats, we decided the probability of our bus getting hijacked was exponentially higher than that of a bus holding mostly locals. Thus, we rearranged our important things accordingly, choosing inconspicuous hiding places for the cameras and Hannah's iPad, spreading out the money amongst our four pockets, two money belts, and four bra straps, and placing our memory cards in our security belts. We kinda feel like pros. Luckily, there was no need for that planning and the ride was quite uneventful. There was a semi-stressful border crossing due to our need to shell out $135 to enter, but the ride otherwise provided beautiful views of Lago Titicaca and the surrounding mountains.