Puno is a small town on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. The main reason to
stop there is that we took an overnight bus to get there, and the prospect of
continuing onto Copacabana for another 4 hours did not appeal. We actually
ended up at a really nice hotel (Suite Indepenencia), where Peru Hop got us a
discount that changed the price from 70 USD to 70 soles, which was a good deal.
The main tourist attraction in Puno is visiting the floating islands, which we
did. The islands consist mostly of reeds, which need to be refreshed
constantly. New layers of reeds are added to the top, as the bottom ones
slowly rot. The islands are anchored in the mud below to keep them from
floating away. It was neat to see this and walk on the islands, but the tour
was pretty focused around buying things. We bought the optional trip on the
authentic reed boat, which was pushed by a dinghy with an outboard motor.
We were only in Puno for one day, and we spent most of that catching up on
sleep that we missed due to being on an overnight bus. Next day we took the bus
across the border into Bolivia and Copacabana. It was another pretty ride. The
border crossing went smoothly. At the border we walked across, and continued on
with a new bus and guide. From there it was just 10 more minutes into
Copacabana.
