Puno: Beware of the Bangle

Puno is known for the way it celebrates festivals, and just our luck, we happen to be here for Puno Week. The festival kicked off our first night here (Oct. 31), and we managed to catch a bit of the festivities then, but we were told that the best time to see what really happens would be today. It was for this reason that we took our trip to the islands when we did, so that we would be back for today.

We woke up early and decided to do a bit of wandering around as we were told that the parade would start at around 10am. We found ourselves in the Plaza de Armas just before 9am and a crowd was already gathering, so we rushed back to our hostal and gathered our stuff for the day. By the time we returned, the "good" spots were gone. But we did manage to find a spot that did give us a fairly good vantage point.

The parade started out with a bunch of political and social floats. They were completly done and presented by youth from around the city. We saw everything from the different economic areas of the province, to health warnings (condoms are good, aka kid dressed in a giant condom), to statements about corruption in the government and private sector, right up to Osoma Bin Ladin and President Bush.

After this, the really interesting part of the parade began. Puno is said to have over 300 unique costumes and dances, and we were lucky enough to be here to be able to get a small sampling of these. It began with very small kids, 5 or 6 years of age, in full costume dancing and performing, and throughout the day, it progressed into older and older and better and better performances. The final groups went through at about 5pm. Longest parade either of us has ever been to.

Now there is a dinner break and we are told it will be followed up with some evening festivities. We think it is a beer break. Oh, Justine also managed to get herself involved in the celebration as well.



These people were the most normally dressed out of all of the groups, and they were having a hoot. But the other groups often had men dressed as devils and gorillas, women in crazy 3inch knee boots and short skirts among other characters. The costumes are really out of this world, some are worth A LOT OF MONEY. You see such poverty in some places, but these costumes are really ornate, beautiful and expensive. The groups preform coreographed dances with a band. If anyone knows more about the significance of the costumes etc, we would love to have a comment or two.

For those who are really interested, we do have some video.... So if you want to recieve the video (probably will be a big file). Email either of us and we will send it out within the week.