PERU: LAKE TITICACA

Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, at 3,808 mt, approximately 8,100 sq.kms. in area, 194 km. long and having an average width of 65 km. At over 170 km long, it is also the largest lake in South America. Its altitude means the air is unusually clear and the azure waters particularly striking. Interesting boat trips can be made from Puno, the major port on the lake. The area is also known for its folk dances and huge herds of alpacas and llamas. In the parts of the lake where its depth is over 25 m. its waters are blue and in the shallower areas it is transparent and green in hue due to the presence of aquatic plants.  It is home to extraordinary fauna such as: flamingoes, duck; fish such as "suche", "capache" and trout which has found the Lake to be a great habitat. 

As for flora, the 'totora' (a kind of cat-tail or red mace) abounds here and serves as a food both for people and cattle and as construction material for houses, rafts, etc. From the river port at Puno town interesting excursions may be made to the Uros islands. It is said that the inhabitants of these islands descend from one of the most ancient peoples of America. Their dwellings sit on the surface of Lake Titicaca. 

LAKE TITICACA: PUNO

At 12,500 feet altitude, Puno sits on the shores of the highest navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca, from the depths of which the first Inca is supposed to have arisen and struck out to found the center of the empire.  Puno was once the hub of one of the most important pre-lnca cultures, Tiawanaco, utmost expression of the ancient Ayamara people. According to legend the first Inca Manco Capoc and his consort Mama Ocllo, emerged precisely from the waters of Lake Titicaca, charged by their father the Sun god to found an Empire or Tahuontinsuyo, which was composed of four regions or quarters, Puno occupying that of Collasuyo which extended over the whole of the Collao Plateau. 

When the Spaniards reached Cusco (mid- 16th C), they heard of the area's great mineral wealth, especially gold and silver. Around 1660 the gory battles waged for possession of a rich mine in Laicota (one league from today's town of Puno) obliged the Viceroy Count of Lemos to travel to the area in order to bring about its pacification, which in turn lead to the founding (4th November 1668) of today's town of Puno. It is also worthy of note that during the colonial years, the western shore of Lake Titicaca constituted an important means of communication between Lima and Cusco to Potosi, the great silver producing center during the Peruvian vice-regal period.

Reached by plane via Juliaca from Lima, or train from Cuzco and Arequipa, hotels provide comfortable overnight accommodations while discovering the area-including a boat ride on the Lake to visit the floating islands of the Uros Indians and the ancient graves of Sillustani.  In their eagerness to catechize the native peoples, Spanish priests set up beautiful churches built with the imagination and by the hands of Puno artists; thus producing their own mestizo style.  Juli became from the 17th century the Jesuits’ experimental center for missionaries destined for Paraguayan Missions and those for the Mojos in Bolivia.