Travel blog
Right in the northeastern part of Argentina, in Parana Delta, you can find a mysterious place like no other, a floating island that manages to rotate along its very own axis. It was nicknamed The EYE, is close to being perfectly circular and has been a mystery for a really Continue Reading
With a surface area of 8,300km2 and situated at 3,810m above sea level, Lake Titicaca, located between the border of Perú and Bolivia, is considered the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. The freshwater lake is home to a number of islands with Amantaní and Taquile being the principal ones on the Peruvian side. Also, here lies an archipelago of artificial floating islands made entirely from totora reeds.
Touring these islands can be easily arranged from the lakeside city of Puno, Peru, with each island offering a different cultural experience. It takes about thirty minutes by boat to reach the floating islands of Uros.
Once you alight, the sensation is akin to walking on a moving boat dock, where the floor is a bit wobbly, making you wonder about its stability. But the Uru people who inhabit these islands continually replenish the totora reeds, on average, every three months.
You spend roughly an hour learning about how the Uru had come to live and maintain life on these islands by relying on this plant, which grows abundantly in the lake, for food, cooking, medicine, construction, and transportation. Then, there’s the opportunity to take a ride on a balsa, boats the Uru also construct out of totora. And for those who love collecting passport stamps, you can get one for Lake Titicaca, making for a brilliant souvenir.
Uros may be the least culturally immersive and has been characterized as somewhat “touristy.” So if you can spare a full day on the lake, include a trip to Taquile. From Uros, it takes another 2.5 hours to get to (or three hours directly from Puno).
Taquile and its textile art is on UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, where knitting is exclusively done by the men and the women exclusively make the yarn and weave. The craftsmanship is so intricate that it looks machine made.
But aside from this remarkable cultural activity, the views of Lake Titicaca afforded from the island and the simplistic beauty of the surroundings as you walk the one hour towards the main square is absolutely stunning. Along the way, you will notice how the people of Taquile recycle everything as the lifecycle of a worn out rubber tire, made into a shoe sole, now serves as a door hinge.
Topographically, the hike is only a gradual ascent, but the high altitude makes it challenging. If not sea sickness, altitude sickness is a common occurrence. The best way to prevent a medical emergency where help is not easily accessible until you return to the mainland is to spend some time acclimatizing in Puno. The return to port is not back the same way, but rather a descent down 500 narrow and steep stone steps.
And if you have even more time, commit to a two day, one night excursion that includes an overnight stay on Amantaní . Amantaní is the furthest from Puno, about 4 hours, but only an hour away from Taquile. The island is beautiful in a subdued way. Not as lush and verdant as Taquile, but with a plenitude of agricultural terraces that extend practically up to the sheer cliffs that plunge into the ocean.
At the port, local families await to greet the small groups that they will be paired with to host. The homestay provides a glimpse into everyday life. Accommodations are simple. There is no running water, electricity, or showers.
Groups and their families hike up to the highest point, Pachatata (Father Earth), to enjoy the sunset. Also here, is an ancient ruin, where it is believed that if you walk around it three times counterclockwise, your wish will come true. Later in the evening, you dress up in traditional costume to attend a party hosted by the community and return in the early morning hours to fall asleep under a clear night sky full of twinkling stars. There are other possibilities for Lake Titicaca tours that are a bit less commercialized so be sure to ask about the options.
Regardless of which islands you choose to visit, there’s no doubt that Lake Titicaca offers a memorable experience.
By Jaclyn Lee
Peru is a country full of historical, cultural and archaeological splendour, and is an excellent country to visit for a holiday experience like no other. Its geography is varied resulting in incredible biodiversity – it is one of only 17 countries in the world classed as “mega-diverse”, its food is rightly and finally starting to earn a reputation as some of the best in the world, and the adventure opportunities are endless – trekking, sand-boarding, rafting, bungee, kayaking to name but a few.
Despite all this, however, the jewel in the crown for Peru is its majestic array of archaeological ruins dotted all over the country. There are many ruins to visit in Peru, so this list is intended as a guide on the Top 5 ruins to try to visit on a holiday to Peru.
It would have been impossible to write a list of the best archaeological ruins in Peru without mentioning Machu Picchu, the most famous and most popular tourist destination in the Americas. The UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World is surely one of the most iconic and awe-inspiring places in the entire world. The classic “postcard” photo, showing the sprawling ruins with the mountain peak of Huayna Picchu as a backdrop, is almost as iconic as the site itself, and has been used as the photo for endless guide books, postcards, and magazine covers.
The site is not mentioned in any of the Spanish chronicles, so it believed the Spanish Conquistadors were not aware of its existence, and it was hidden from the western world for hundreds more years, until Hiram Bingham discovered the ruin, with the help of some indigenous locals, in 1911.
Today visitors to the site get a very interesting and educational tour of the ruins by a professional guide, aside from the views the Inca stone-work is exceptional, and the water system the Inca devised to transport water throughput the site is nothing short of genius.
For anyone up to the challenge by far the best way to experience the site is to trek the 4-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, which arrives at Machu Picchu on the morning of the 4th day before sunrise so tired trekkers can watch the first rays of the sun rise of the ruin. However the town of Aguas Calientes, in the valley below Machu Picchu, is where most tourists stay overnight before catching a 20 minute bus up to the site entrance. Aguas Calientes is reached by train from Cusco.
Although Machu Picchu is the only Inca site in Peru to be listed here, the area surrounding Machu Picchu and Cusco is full of excellent Inca archaeological sites that may be less famous than Machu Picchu but are definitely worth visiting… amongst the best are Ollantaytambo, Choquequirao, Sacsayhuaman, Moray, Pisac, Qorikancha and Tambomachay.
Caral, around 2 hours north of Lima by road, is an incredibly large UNESCO World Heritage Site which is very important in the cultural and archaeological history of Peru.
The Norte Chico civilisation lived in this area of Peru from as early as 5000 years ago, and Caral itself is though to be around 4000 to 4500 years old. It is the oldest civilisation to have been discovered in the entire Americas.
Today Caral is little-known, with only a handful of visitors per day, however that might change soon – the Peruvian government is investing time and money in ongoing restoration of the site, with plans to expand access and make it the “Machu Picchu of the Pacific coast” within the next 15 to 20 years.
In terms of size Caral far exceeds Machu Picchu – Caral encompasses a series of 19 pyramids spread out over 35 square miles, with the main site featuring 9 large pyramids encircling a giant enclosure.
Onsite guides will give a tour throughout the entire site, visiting all the pyramids and showing stone carvings that are thousands of years old.
One of Peru’s best kept secrets, the ruin of Kuelap can be visited by tours from the nearby northern Peruvian city of Chachapoyas. The Chachapoyas region of Peru has just as many interesting and adventurous tourist destinations as the much more famous Cusco region in the south of Peru, but is far less-visited.
Kuelap, built around 1000AD, is a very visually impressive site – giant man-made “cliffs”, up to 12 metres high, surround the hill-top ruin and enclose round brick houses where the Chachapoyas people lived.
The countryside surrounding the ruin is typically Andean, with endless mountains and valleys and terraced farmland. The views from the ruin are just as spectacular as a visit to the ruin itself. Although access to Chachapoyas is more difficult than Cusco, Kuelap is an astonishing place to visit on a Pery holiday .
The outstanding Gocta Waterfalls, one of the top ten highest waterfalls in the world, are near to Kuelap and Chachapoyas and are definitely also worth a visit.
Around 800 years ago Chan Chan, on the outskirts of the modern city of Trujillo (famous for its cuisine and accessed easily by bus from Lima), was an incredibly large and important city. It was the largest pre-Colombian city in the Americas, and is the largest adobe city in the world, which at one time housed tens of thousands of people over an astonishing area of almost 30 square kilometres.
Today the site is so large that only part of it can be visited, and whilst restoration of the remaining parts of the ruin will continue, it is likely that full restoration will be impossible simply due to the sheer scale of the site.
The northern region of Peru is often over-looked by tourists, but it has a rich array of sites to see, of which Chan Chan might possibly be the jewel in the crown. A visit to the site is very interesting, with endless walkways, plazas and richly decorated adobe brickwork. For beach lovers, the nearby village of Huanchaco is famous for its traditional reed-boats, and the beach-side town of Mancora, and the resort of Punta Sal, are easily accessed with Trujillo being an excellent stop-off point en route from Lima.
Like Chan Chan, the “Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun” (Huaca de la Luna y Huaca del Sol)are also adobe ruins and are also on the outskirts of the city of Trujillo, however that is where the similarity ends. The Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun are around 600-800 years older than Chan Chan, and whereas Chan Chan is the largest adobe city in the world, the Temple of the Sun is the largest adobe single-structure on the planet, made with more than 100 million adobe bricks!
However, despite the size of the Temple of the Sun it is the Temple of the Moon that is much more worth visiting. Although the Temple of the Moon is smaller, it is much more extensively excavated, and archaeologists have opened it up into a maze of corridors, rooms and chambers, some of which feature 1500 year-old original painted decorative features which are astonishing.
Author: Jonathan Lillie lived in Peru throughout 2008 and 2009 and has travelled extensively throughout the country. After returning from his adventures he helped set up the Peru travel company Go Andes. One of his favourite things to do is to spend a day people-watching and taking photos of the wonderful sites in the city of Cusco, before spending the evening watching the sunset over the main plaza.
