
Puno and Titikaka Lake
Puno is a region of Peru, situated at 3,827 meters (12,500 feet)
a.s.l. its population is around 100,000 inhabitants in the city, on
the banks or Titicaca or Titikaka Lake, it is as well the world
highest navigable lake - displays the reminiscences of its origin
through cave paintings and spearheads, testimony of our highland
ancestor's life. The Collao Plateau; this Is the geographical place
where ancient and Important cultures like Pucara and, the later
Tiahuanaco, appeared. During colonial times, the spaniards
established In Puno attracted by its mineral richness, bringing new
cultural, social and economic Patterns along. The city of San Carlos
de Puno and was founded in 1668.

Titicaca Lake:
The Titicaca lake, is the world's highest navigable lake and the
center of a region where thousands of subsistence farmers eke out a
living fishing in its icy waters, growing potatoes in the rocky land
at its edge or herding llama and alpaca at altitudes that leave
Europeans and North Americans gasping for air. It is also where
traces of the rich natives past still stubbornly cling, resisting in
past centuries the Spanish invaders aggressive campaign to erase
Inca and pre-Inca cultures. And, In recent times, the lure of
modernization. When Peruvians talk of turquoise blue Titicaca, they
proudly note that it is so large it has waves, and considered sacred
since ancient times. now the separation between Peru and Bolivia,
has a surface area exceeding 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square
miles), not counting its more than 30 islands.
At 3,856 meters (12,725 feet) above sea level it has two climates:
chilly and rainy or chilly and dry. In the evenings it becomes quite
cold, dropping below freezing from May through August. In the day,
the sun is intense and sunburn is common. Oceanographer Jacques Yves
Cousteau spent eight weeks using mini submarines to explore the
depths of the lake but found no gold. (What he did discover, to the
amazement of the scientific world, was a 60-centimeter (24-in) long,
tri-colored frog that apparently never surfaces!).
The urban base.
Puno is located on the Peruvian side, an unattractive commercial
center settled as a Spanish community in 1668 by the Count of Lemos.
Although today Puno seems unappealing, during the Spanish period it
was one of the continent's richest cities because of its proximity
to the Laykakota silver mines discovered by brothers Gaspar and Jose
Salcedo in 1657. The mining boom drew 10,000 people to an area not
far from what is now Puno. It also brought a bloody rivalry that
ended only when the ironhanded count traveled to Puno, ordered Jose
Salcedo executed and transferred Laykakota's residents.
Puno is still Peru's the altiplano capital - the harsh highland
region much better suited to roaming vicuñas and alpacas than to
people. It is also Peru's folklore center with a rich array of
handicrafts, costumes, holidays, legends and, most importantly, more
than 300 ethnic dances Within Puno, there remain a handful of
buildings worth seeing. The cathedral is a magnificent stone
structure dating back to 1757 with a weather-beaten baroque-style
exterior and a surprisingly Spartan interior- except for its center
altar of carved marble, which is plated in silver.
Tour Programs “exploring the lake”.
Puno is the stepping-off point for exploring Titicaca with its
amazing array of islands, Native inhabitants and colorful
traditions. Small motorboats can be hired for lake trips or for
catching the 13kg (30lb) lake trout that make it one of Peru's
best-known fishing destinations. Most of the transportation is
either by motorized launches or the totora reed boats that Norwegian
Thor Heyerdahl studied in preparing for his legendary 4,300-nautical
mile (7,970-km) journey from Peru to Polynesia in the reed boat
Kon-Tiki in the 1940s.
Floating
islands “Uros”.
The best-known of the islands are dotting Titicaca surface Uros.
Floating islands of reed named after the Natives who inhabited them.
Legend has it the Uros Natives had black blood that helped them to
survive the frigid nights on the water and safeguarded them from
drowning. The last full-blooded Uros was a woman who died in 1959.
Other Uros had left the group of islands in earlier years owing to a
drought that worsened their poverty - and intermarried with Aymará
and Quechua-speaking Natives. They fish, hunt birds and they use the
reeds for their houses, boats and even as the base of their five
islands - the largest of which are Toranipata, Huaca Huacani and
Santa Maria. The bottoms of the reed islands decay in the water and
are replaced from the top with new layers, making a spongy surface
that is a bit difficult to walk on.
Taquile
Taquile is the name of a lake which is home of skilled weavers and a
spot where travelers can buy wellmade woolen and alpaca goods as
well as colorful garments whose patterns and designs bear hidden
messages about the wearer's social standing or marital status. The
residents of this island run their own tourism operations in the
hope that visits of outsiders will not destroy their delicate
culture. There are no hotels on Taquile but the islanders generously
open their homes to tourists interested in an overnight stay.
Amantani
Handicrafts also play an important role in life on Amantani, a
lovely and peaceful island even further away from Puno than Taquile.
Amantani was once part of the Inca empire, as attested to by local
ruins, before the Spanish invaded and slaughtered the islanders. The
Spaniard who was granted a concession to the island used the Indians
in forced labor and his descendants were still in control after
Peru's independence from Spain. But eventually an island fiesta
turned violent and the Indians attacked their landlord with hoes and
consequently split up the island into communally-held fields.
Amantani Island.
Its doors are opened to outsiders who are willing to live for a few
days as the Aymará-speaking islanders do -and that means sleeping on
beds made of long hard reeds and eating potatoes for every meal.
There is no running water or electricity and nighttime temperatures
drops to freezing even in the summer. Some Amantaní residents live
and die without ever leaving the island.
Journeys to Amantaní begin at Puno docks aboard sputtering wooden
motorboats operated by the islanders. At the end of the four-hour
trip, visitors are registered as guests and assigned to a host
family. The family, usually led by a shy patriarch, shows the way to
its mud-brick home set around an open courtyard decorated with white
pebbles spelling out the family's name.
Prepared visitors usually bring gifts of fruit -a rarity on the
isolated island and the socializing begins when a family member who
speaks English offers a guided walk around the island, from where
the views are something spectacular. Women wearing traditional black
and white lace dresses pass by with Slingshots in their hands to
kill scavenging birds.
Esteves Island.
Esteves is connected to Puno by a bridge, well known because of its
luxurious hotel and it is a far cry from what was used to be the
main construction on the island - a prison that accommodated the
patriots captured by the Spanish during Peru's war for independence.

Chullpas de Sillustani: Mysterious burial chambers:
At About 35 km (21 miles) from Puno, is located Sillustani,
with its circular burial towers or chullpas overlooking Umayo lake.
The age of the funeral towers, which are up to 12 meters (40 feet)
high, remains a puzzle. A Spanish chronicle-keeper described them as
"recently finished" in 1549, although some still appear as if they
were never completed and the natives that built them were conquered
by the Incas about a century earlier. The chullpas apparently were
used as burial chambers for nobles of the Colla civilization; these
were antives who spoke Aymara, who buried their nobility with their
entire family.
Not far away is Chucuito, a village that sits upon what was once an
Inca settlement and which boasts an Inca sundial. Stop by the Santo
Domingo Church with its small museum in this altiplano village; also
worth visiting is La Asuncion Church.
Copacabana
can also be reached by taking a minibus rid around the side of the
lake, passing the reeds waving in the wind, shy but curious children
at the bends in the road and always the brilliant blue of Titicaca
or the roadway that ends the lake.