Originally Posted by pgh234

We did Titicaca this past June and while the lake was beautiful, the area around it was nasty. All of the black-market trade between Bolivia and Peru goes through Juliaca and Puno. Both of those cities are simply not for tourists, there is no tourist infrastructure, we couldn't even find a Lake Titicaca t-shirt. I have no doubt things will improve over the coming years, but it is not ready.

As an example, after staying in our $40 hotel room with one light bulb, massive spiders, damp beds, and cold brown running water, we had to wake up 8 hours before our flight from Juliaca Airport. All transit drivers were on strike so we had a scab bus driver charge us triple the normal price to drive us around the perimeter of town through what looked like a garbage dump before the sun rose. Random trash, cars, broken glass, and tires were strewn about the street to prevent travel and many of the townspeople were throwing glass bottles and rocks at our bus.