PUNO, on the banks of Lake Titicaca - 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 Is the geographical space, where
ancient and Important cultures like Pucara and, later,
Tiahuanaco, appeared.This is the region where, according
to the legend, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo emerged from
the sacred Lake Titicaca to found the Inca Empire.
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 was founded in 1668 and the
priests, eager to convert the natives, motivated them to
build beautiful churches.
LAKE TITICACA
Lake Titicaca 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 Indian past still
stubbornly cling, resisting in past centuries the
Spanish conquistadors' aggressive campaign to erase Inca
and preInca cultures and, in recent times, the lure of
modernization.
When Peruvians talk of turquoise blue Titacaca, they
proudly note that it is so large it has waves. This, the
most sacred body of water in the Inca empire and now the
natural 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. |
