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Puno and Lake Titicaca

After a few days of beach time in Lima, I was off again to Arequipa and then to Puno and Lake Titicaca.  In Arequipa, I met up with a woman, Maria, I met in Arequipa before I left for Christmas and a friend of hers, Therese.  Maria is from Virginia and moved 7 months ago to Arequipa.  Therese is from Canada and is doing some volunteer work in Lima. 

In the day and a half I was in Arequipa, we got our trip to Puno planned.  We boarded our bus on Tuesday, February 6th and off we went to the highest navigable lake in the world (3820m or 12,530 feet) and to one of the wildest celebrations of the year in Peru - La Candelaria.

Per a tour book, "Lake Titicaca, is undeniably an impressive sight. A National Reserve since 1978, it has over sixty varieties of birds, fourteen species of native fish and eighteen types of amphibians. At 3820m (12,530ft), is the highest navigable lake in the world. At over 170km (105mi) 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 to outlying islands 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.

Curious Inca-built Chullpa burial tombs circle the lake and man-made Uros Floating Islands are fascinating. These islands have been inhabited for centuries since their construction by retreating Uros Indians. More powerful and self-determined are the communities who live on the fixed islands of Taquile and Amantani, often described as the closest one can get to heaven by the few travelers who make it out this far into the lake. There are in fact more than seventy islands in the lake, the largest and most sacred being the Island of the Sun which is at the Bolivian side of the Lake.

The city Puno which is located at the banks of the Titicaclake at 3,870 meters above sea level and is during 18 days (From the 1st of February till the 18th of February) the folkloric capital of America. In the festival partipate around 200 musicgroups and dancers. The first 9 days the butlers (that are ordered to organize the festival) decorate the church and listen to the mass. Afterwards they go to different banquets and to fire displays.

The main day, the 2nd of February, the virgin (Virgen de la Candelaria) is carried towards the city in a very colorful procession. This is the moment that all musicians are going to play and all dancers are going to dance throughout the streets of Puno. The festival is linked to the pre-Hispanic agricultural cycles of sowing and harvesting, as well as mining activities in the region. It is the result of a blend of respectful Aymara gaiety and ancestral Quechua seriousness.

The dance of the demons, or diablada, the main dance of the festival, was allegedly dreamed up by a group of miners trapped down a mine who, in their desperation, resigned their souls to the Virgen de la Candelaria. The dancers, blowing zampoña pan-pipes and clad in spectacular costumes and outlandish masks, make their offerings to the earth goddess Pachamama. The most impressive masks, for their terrifying aspect, are those of the deer fitted with long twisted horns similar to the Devil, and Jacancho, the god of minerals. During the farewell, or cacharpari, the dancers who fill the streets finally head to the cemetery to render homage to the dead."

The pictures here give you an idea of what Puno looks like without the festival.  It is a very large city spred out across several hills that butt up against the shores of Lake Titicaca.  There are several statues - an eagle, an Inca, Christ - that sit high above the city protecting it from harm.  Of course, there are many cathedrals in town with the one pictured here the main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas. 

The lake looks more like an ocean than a lake, for all as far as you can see is water and sometimes rather turbulent water!  There is also some sort of green algea that is growing in the water and creating a green lawn-type covering. 

Continue on for more details of our incredible trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca!  

 

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