Puno is one of many not tourist cities in Peru. The question about the hotel is funny and answer, I will try to him, with humor, describing the situation with which we encountered in this place. The question should not stand "Where is it better or cheaper to settle in Puno?", And so "where to find a hotel or his similarity in Puno?" The answer in any case is nowhere. The only city in which is what to see in Peru is Cusco. And not because I am his faithful fan, but in fact it is. In the city of Puno you will find the same nightmare as us. Well, first, the famous lake, with ironic title title, is called so not in vain .. I just want to prepare you morally, that if you didn't say that you were deceived here. It is not a lake, and some kind of swamp, and we have the impression that the inventive locals merge there (sorry) all sewage from the nearest cities. Yes, and the city itself, I would call the village.
It so happened that we were all night on the way, after an unsuccessful attempt to find myself Picchu Mach. It was planned that we spend one night in Puno and in the morning we will go on the border with Bolivia. It seemed to us that in Bolivia, it would certainly be better than in Peru. Naive Russians.
After a sleepless night, we were almost fined on the road, because the husband periodically fell asleep and chewed the leaves of Coca, so that at least a little be cheer.
We began to quickly look for life and did not consider carefully "beauty" of the city. Only the breeze is caught, which brought the smell of sewage from Lake Titicaca. For more than an hour we drove to no avail through the streets of this settlement. Hotels were not. We have already been "scored" on the Internet, which was always necessary for us, because all work activities and me, and my husband takes on the Internet. We did not need anything and not interesting, only the desire to sleep shake us down. The unbearable sector of the sewage was not stopped, in addition to this in the city absolutely there was no possibility to park our car, it is quite large for us. Another hour we were looking for parking. Finally found the semblance of the hotel, some kind of hostel, I do not remember the name, he was in one of the alleys, in which we accidentally wandered, almost sleeping and weakened from fatigue.
Lifting up the stairs to the second floor of this, the so-called hotel, I realized that this is the most terrible flavor from all the places we have ever settled. Even in the Tula Hotel, in Russia, we were lucky more, there was at least a clean towel and a fan when it was -10 on the street. But now is not about it.
At first we were settled in a common room in which there were still eight dirty and stinky local people, there were men and women, if they could be called. For me, a female image is not like this. In addition, the number was common to the crowd of homeless, the toilet was as common and was outside the room, on the other floor! It sounds ridiculous, I understand your emotions. But you will not even imagine what I experienced. The husband was very tired and I had no right to force him to look for another place to fall asleep as a person.
I could not go to the toilet, because it was shy terribly and was afraid to sit on the toilet, which was not treated, after all this crowd dirty. And it was not known what diseases they had there. All the same, Peru is, first of all, drugs, prostitution, not knowledge and not observance of elementary sanitation and hygiene ..
The husband convinced the hotel staff that we need a separate room, with a shared bed for sleep and a separate toilet, which would stand in our room, and not on the other floor. They went to us for concessions and forced to wait 1 hour until another room is released. Now we were waiting for a more friendly room, with three double beds, a single bathroom with a toilet and a TV (which turned on on my own and was used as a alarm clock, it worked at 9 am the next day, so that we would have slept leaving the hotel). When I went into the bathroom, I felt a terrible smell of socks and male dirty feet emanating from towels. They were as many as two in the room, but we did not use any of them. The toilet was without a seat and without a lid. And it smelled there, as if ten dirty cats simultaneously went to the toilet. There was no hot water, I think about it you yourself guessed.
We slept as killed. But not from the fact that the beds were super comfortable, but from what they were getting out of their strength and were very tired. By the way, about beds, I can add that the underwear has not changed most likely at all in this room. We had a heater with you, and in general the room was about +10 in the room, no more. No heating was envisaged. Breakfast was also not * evil smile *.
In the morning we learned that the rest of the hotels in the city are also about the same level, i.e. No simple amenities. There is even a conversation about the number of stars and terry coats, but about elementary human needs - hot water, warmth, clean bed and towel, toilet.
I specifically went to googly at the request of "PUNU", as not surprising, issues some incredibly beautiful photos, in a word of paradise, and only. But I told you about my impression about this city. In photographs on the Internet and the Titicaca looks at all wrong. I have one successful photo of this lake, but not quite in Puno, rather closer to the border with Bolivia. And then it is beautiful, due to the totality of snow and not frozen water. But not at the expense of the lake itself. Our family did not impress this lake and an abnormal city too. Why am I surprised? Further, because the plan was Bolivia, and it's even worse, but this is a completely different story.