Let’s say it, Puno has had a bad reputation among the backpackers. That the city is not very nice, that it’s dangerous, that it’s awfully cold, that it’s complicated to find a hotel with hot water…

But all these ‘reasons’ are not so true anymore: in the last years, Puno has shown an interesting evolution. Fist, there is a bus terminal -the last time I visited Puno, in 1999, it was impossible to know where in the city, the bus left you. Second, the lake port looks very neat, the boats that do the tour have lifesaver vests -yes, believe or not, before they didn’t have them. Third, the city has many more restaurants and bars that are good to escape from the chilly weather -well, the weather isn’t supposed to change too, right?

One more interesting thing: Puno is really cheap to visit. A tour to the Uros islands takes the whole morning and costs 10 soles -around 3 dollars. The tour that includes Taquile-Amantaní-Uros cost 30 soles, less than 10 dollars. And, really, in any case, it’s a great tour any visitor will truly enjoy. As you can see, without much suffering, compared to the high cost of visiting Cuzco.

I think that the strategy of Puno is to position itself as the second important touristic destination in the zone, right behind Cuzco. They still have a long way to go, but some results are already noticeable. There’s a tourist guide of Puno, put together by the official sector, with a description of local attractions, mostly centered in the colonial legacy, such as churchs, convents, etc.

About the hotels, Puno has a good number of choices, but you still cannot get hot water 24 hours a day. This is usually limited to a few hours a day. From 6 to 10 in the morning and from 6 to 10 at night. In our case, we stayed at Hotel Los Uros -I promise to look up the address later- that charged 40 soles (less than 13 dollars) the double with private bathroom. Not bad, but the truth is that for that money we’ve seen better hotels in other cities.

If you’re thinking about going to Cuzco and want to add another location within Peru, Puno is an excellent choice that, for now -and, hopefully, for a long time- has a very reasonable cost. From Cuzco you can take a semi-bed bus for only 20 soles -less than seven dollars- It’s a 9 hour ride. Think 2 or 3 days of permanence to visit the local attractions. About safety, we didn’t have any problem, but many people along the way told us that they were robbed in Juliaca, the city where Puno’s airport is located. So, beware.