Peru Guide
The Titicaca Basin
Chucuito
CHUCUITO, 20km south of Puno, is dwarfed by its intensive hillside terracing and the huge igneous boulders poised behind the brick and adobe houses. Chucuito was once a colonial town and its main plaza retains the pillory (picota) where the severed heads of executed criminals were displayed. Close to this there's a sundial, erected in 1831 to help the local Aymara people regulate to an 8am to 5pm work day. The base is made from stones taken from the Inca Templo de Fertilidad – itself located behind the Hotel Taypikala – which remains Chucuito's greatest treasure. Inside the temple's main stone walls are around a hundred stone phalluses, row upon row jammed within the temple space, ranged like seats in a theatre. Some of the larger ones may have had particular ritual significance, and locals say that women who have difficulty getting pregnant still come here to pray for help on the giant phalluses. Also on the plaza is the Iglesia Santo Domingo, constructed in 1780 and displaying a very poor image of a puma. For accommodation, try the Hotel Las Cabañas, Jr Bolognesi 334 ( 
051/351276; Price: $10-15), affiliated to Hostelling International where you stay in small huts with constant hot water and a fire for the cool nights.