In March, my husband and I spent a few nights in Puno, Peru, on the banks of Lake Titicaca. One of the best things we did during our stay was to hire a guide for a day to drive us to some of the smaller towns outside Puno. We wanted to get a better sense of how the local people lived around Lake Titicaca, what day-to-day life was like at 12,000+ feet of elevation in rural Peru. We told our guide to take us somewhere visitors usually don't usually go, and he chose a delightful town called Lampas about an hour outside Puno.

While wandering through charming Lampas, at one point I got the distinct feeling that I was being watched. I looked around and saw that I was, in fact, being scrutinized pretty closely by this young boy - he must have wondered why I was taking pictures of his town. There are many fascinating, beautiful towns around the more-popular Puno, so if you visit Lake Titicaca, take a day, hire a knowledgeable guide, and tell him or her to take you somewhere most people don't think to visit. You won't be disappointed.