Puno and Lake Titicaca

An immense region both in terms of its history and the breadth of its magical landscape, the Titicaca Basin makes most people feel like they are on top of the world. The skies are vast and the horizons appear to bend away below you. The high altitude means that recent arrivals from the coast have to take it easy for a day or two, though those
coming from Cusco will already have acclimatized. The scattered population of the region is descended from two very ancient Andean ethnic groups of tribes - the Aymara and the Quechua. The Aymara's Tiahuanaco culture pre - dates the Quechua's Inca civilization by over three hundred years. On the edge of the town spreads the vast Lake Titicaca enclosed by white peaks and dotted with unusual floating islands, basically huge rafts built out of reeds and home to a dwindling and much abused Indian population. More spectacular by far are two of the populated, fixed islands, Amantani and Taquile, whose still traditional lifestyle gives visitors a genuine taste of pre - Conquest Andean Peru. Densely populated since well before the arrival of the Incas, the lakeside Titicaca region is also home to the curious and ancient tower tombs, known locally as chullpas, which are rings of tall, cylindrical stone burial chambers, often standing in battlement - like formations.