Peru Guide
The Titicaca Basin
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 (3827m above sea level) 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 Titicaca region is renowned for its folk dances and Andean music and makes an obvious and interesting place to break your journey from Arequipa to Cusco or into Bolivia. You can visit islands on the world's highest lake, navigable by large boats, or get to know its main town and port – Puno, a high, quite austere city with a cold climate and incredibly rarefied air. Alternatively you may fancy some time on one of the huge lake's islands where life has changed little in the last five hundred years.
Highlights
1 Lake Titicaca islands Though very different in character, none of the Lake Titcaca islands have cars or electricity, offering a fascinating glimpse of what life must have been like five hundred years ago.
2 Sillustani On a little peninsula in Lake Umayo overlooking Titicaca, this is the dramatic site of an ancient temple/cemetery consisting of a ring of tower-like stone chullpa tombs.