In our planning for our April 05 trip, the question became, why Puno? The goal for us was to see Lake Titcaca, of course. Since time was short, we took a flight from Cusco to LaPaz. A driver and guide met us there (Crillon Tours ^ ) and drove us to a hotel on the Bolivia side Lake Titcaca. We had an awesome experience. Besides, we flew over the entire length of the lake. We spent a night at the lakeside hotel which offered some unusual tours/experiences and a second night on Sun Island, the birthplace of the Incas. Bolivia also has Tiwanaku, far more ancient than Machu Picchu. I'm sure I'm too late to help the OP, but others should consider going to Bolivia. To me, it was more authentic than the tourist oriented Peru that we saw.