Lago Titicaca Things to Do

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The Uros are a pre-Incan culture that lives on floating island on Lake Titicaca, not far from Puno, Peru.

Several of these islands are visited by tourists. The reeds that make up the islands are anchored to the bottom of the lake and must be continuously replaced as they slowly rot in the water.

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Sillustani was an interesting excursion at only 34 kilometres from Puno.

Situated by the Umayo lagoon, this scenic place was a sacred cemetery built by Kollas.
Kolla Kingdom was an Aymara kingdom that occupied Titicaca’s shores from 1200 until 1450, when the Inca Pachacutec conquered them.
The particularity of this cemetery is its funerary tombs called Chulpas. This conic towers were used only for noble families. The corpse was placed inside the tower in foetal position surrounded by jewels and everyday tools. There was a small entrance always in the East side. In this way the corpse’s spirit could communicate with the rising sun. The highest tower that has arrived until our days is 12 metres high.

When we visited Sillustani there was nobody around so we could wander around the site freely and explore the different Chulpas (picture 3). It was nice to stay there until sunset: the landscape looked even more beautiful with that light (picture 4).

There is no public transport to Sillustani. We took a taxi from Puno to the site and asked him to wait for us.

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On the second island that we visited there was a wedding celebration. Again it was weird to land there in the middle of a private ceremony. Bride and groom (Wilber and Deliana) assisted to some traditional dances in their honour sitting on two plastic chairs under their names. That’s why I distinguished them because they did not wear any special dress. I wondered about the use of that pink tent behind them: maybe it would be used later for their honeymoon?

On this island we could also know more about totora houses: they have an only room and women always cook outside, in the open air, to avoid fires (picture 3).

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Uros Islands are an ensemble of 9 artificial islands made of totora, a kind of reed that grows in the area (picture 1). Totora is used not only to build the island itself but also to build the houses and local boats. It is a strange feeling to walk on these islands, the soil is fluffy!
Uros Islands was a weird excursion because you land on these small islands like a voyeur that is discovering a new culture and wants to take pictures of everything. It must not be very funny for people’s everyday life but I guess that they are used to because, somehow, they live from it selling gifts and transporting tourists from an island to another one.

We did a half day trip using a modern motor boat, which is faster (and less fluffy, he hee) than a traditional totora boat. There are plenty of options to visit these islands, for sure you will find the excursion that fits you better. As soon as you arrive to the port of Puno, the boat owners will come to you with their proposals.

Puno was our base camp to explore the Peruvian side of Titicaca Lake. From Puno’s port we visited Uros Islands by boat on a half day trip.
I did not have a good impression about this dusty city with many unfinished houses on the way to the port so I did not waste my time exploring it. However, our basic needs (food and drink) took us to an interesting business street with nice restaurants and cafés.

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The following day we did not want to go back to Copacabana without visiting the Moon Island. Less frequented by tourists than its sister, this small island -0,76x2,80km- deserves a short stop to visit the Palacio de las Vírgenes del Sol (Sun Virgins Palace). This temple was the house of few chosen virgins and here they learned the different women tasks. The only visitor who could come here was the Inca and the virgins had to pay him their respects. These women could become his secondary wives or –those less fortunate- become object of sacrifice.
Just in front of the temple there is a design on the floor made of stones. It is very beautiful but I don’t know its meaning :-(
We only spent half an hour on this island taking some pictures of the temple. It is like an amphitheatre facing to the sea, a very scenic structure.

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Isla del Sol is a hilly island. When you arrive by ship there is a steep walk that takes you to the main archaeological site in the north of the island, Challapampa. Usually people stay there visiting the remains of the labyrinth, the sacred table for sacrifices and the archaeological museum.
After wandering for a while in this area we decided to skip the ship back to Copacabana and take the walk path which crosses the island north – south. This walk, known as the Inca Route, is a 3-4 hours walk with gorgeous views over the lake, the terrasses and other less frequented remains. The highest point on the island is the Cerro Chequesani at 4.075m.

Finally by the end of the day we found a family who had few rooms in their house arranged for lost tourists.

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This is the biggest island on the lake and it is considered the birthplace of the first Incas (kings of Inca people) Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo. The Sacred Rock and other archaeological remains still testify today about this sacred past. Nowadays this island is basically inhabited by incas and aymaras indios who live from agriculture, pasture and of course fishing. Some of the cultivated terraces –made to adapt the steep and rocky land to agriculture- still used today by locals are from Inca times.

We arrived to the Sun Island by ship from Copacabana. Usually people do a day trip but we decided to spend the night there to explore the archaeological remains better –there are around 80 remains on the island- and do some hikes. We had nothing planned and did not know if there were “tourist structures” around to eat or sleep. But the landscape was so beautiful and the lake so blue that we did not feel like to leave the island yet.