Puno, Lake Titicaca – What is the hottest bet in town?

Walking through my home town of St Albans, it is not uncommon to hear the sound of Peruvian pipes eminating from the marketplace. Whenever I do hear the distinctive sound, my thoughts always drift back to our time in Peru, and particularly of the few days we spent around Lake Titicaca before we headed for Cusco and the Inca Trail.

Puno is a small town nestled on the shores of the lake, and is a popular stop for tourists who are exploring the lake and its islands. For those who have flown up from the coast this is an immediate exposure to the high altitude of the altiplano. We travelled in a group of 18, and only two of us escaped the effects of the rarefied air. I wasn’t the worst by any stretch, but was certainly aware of a throbbing headache and benefited from an afternoon with my feet up. A few hours of rest and I was feeling ok.

Puno has many bars and cafes, and we visited quite a few on our first evening. Mate de coca, the drink of choice in the Peruvian highlands, is tea brewed from the leaves of the coca plant. It is said to relieve altitude sickness. It also helps beat off the cold that whizzes through the streets of this lofty town. One of the traditions here is for local youngsters to ply their musical skills around the town and make a few sols from the passing tourist traffic. A group will typically play three or four tunes and then pass around the hat, before moving onto the next bar. In their place will come another act.

And here was the bet: it didn’t take us long to get overly familiar with the tune of El Condor Pasa (if you grew up to Simon and Garfunkel you would probably already be very familiar with it). Whatever else they played there would be little doubt that this number would never be missed out. The only question was when? Would it be the opening number? Or the grand finale?

Drinks were staked on the timing of this ubiquitous melody, and the bands must have been delighted by the loud cheer that went up when they struck up that unmistakable intro. I probably lost many rounds of beer and tea that night, but it was a lot of fun. And to this day, I can’t hear that tune without my mind drifting back to coca tea and a bar full of atmosphere in the Andes.

(Oct 1996)