Puno Travel Guide

Lake Titicaca is a highland giant on the Peru–Bolivia border at 3,812 metres — the largest lake in South America and the highest navigable lake on Earth. More than 80 Uros floating islands are woven from totora reed, 1–2 metres thick and constantly renewed on top, springing like a damp mattress underfoot; on Taquile, islanders still weave on Inca belt looms, men knitting as they walk, in a tradition UNESCO has listed as intangible heritage; Amantani opens homestays where quinoa, lake trout and unpolluted stars come with the room. Between water and distant mountains lies a living museum of millennia-old Indigenous lake life — and, in Andean belief, the lake of creation itself. Afternoon chop builds on the water, so take the early boats.

The Uros floating islands rest on Peru's Lake Titicaca in the Puno region, hand-built by the Uru people from layers of totora reeds that are constantly renewed to keep the islands afloat — among the most extraordinary artificial islands in the Americas. Houses, boats and even furniture are woven of reed, and residents still live an ancient life upon the water, fishing and welcoming visitors. Stepping onto an island reveals the wisdom of Indigenous Andean people living in harmony with nature, and offers a serene, poetic pause amid the fragrant reeds and shimmering lake.

The Sillustani funerary towers stand on the peninsula of Lake Umayo, beside Peru's Lake Titicaca in the Puno region — mortuary monuments raised by the pre-Columbian Colla people. The towering stone 'chullpas' once held the remains of nobles, and the taller the tower, the higher the status of those interred within. Set against the altiplano with the blue lake behind, the ruins evoke an ancient Andean vision of life and death. The wind moving across the stones seems still to recite a worldview older than the Inca, a lasting testament to the spiritual world of the pre-Inca civilizations.

Isla Taquile is a native island in Lake Titicaca, famous for men's finely knit chullos and a distinct communal dress code; its textile tradition is UNESCO Intangible Heritage. Car-free, with stone paths winding to a hilltop viewpoint over the lake and Bolivia's ranges.

Isla de Amantani is a large car-free island in Lake Titicaca, its hills terraced with ancient fields and crowned by two shrines — Pachatata and Pachamama. Islanders host visitors in family homestays; the sunrise and sunset from the summit over the lake are the most moving experience.

The Yavari is a 19th-century iron gunboat moored at Puno port, built in Britain then shipped in pieces over the Andes by mule train to be assembled on Lake Titicaca, launched in 1870. Now a museum ship, it shows lake shipping history and the singular engineering of high-altitude inland vessels.