About
Puno
Puno city is the capital of the department of Puno. It was founded with the name of "Villa Rica de San Carlos de Puno" in 1668, by the Viceroy Count of Lemos, to end with the problems of possession of the silver mines of Laicacota of the brothers Gaspar and José
Salcedo.
Lake port beside the Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. It have landscapes of indescribable beauty, it has been the origin and cradle of big pre-Hispanic civilizations as Tiahuanaco, Collas and Aymaras, and of the mythical legend of Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo who emerged of its waters and went to Cuzco
to found the capital of the Inca empire.
Lving Culture: The Uros, famous and ancestral town that live in floating artificial islands, or the indigenous communities of Taquile and Amantani that maintain their customs and rites without changes in the course of the time, amid unique landscapes.
Very near the city you will find interesting archaeological remains of
Pre-Hispanic cultures, as the chullpas of Sillustani inside the Ecological Reserve of Umayo, Pucara, or old cities of Spanish foundation as Chucuito, Juli and Pomata that harbor jewels of the architecture and colonial art, expressed in their temples and churches that flourished as product of the fortune of the silver mines of this region and the Spanish conquest of the Paraguay and of the Mojos.
Puno has been denominated the "Capital folklórica del Perú" (folkloric capital of Peru) by the wealth of its artistic and cultural expressions. Especially through the dance; there are registered more than 300 from the 1,500 existing in the national environment, autochthonous dances that reach their biggest manifestation in the celebrations of the Feast of the "Virgen de la Candelaria" and the Regional Competition of Autochthonous Dances.
The native resident of Puno is of the ethnos Aymara (12.9% population of Peru); their language is the Aymara. For the subsistence in height average of 4,000 meters above sea level (13,122 feet) and with a cold climate, they have achieved an excellent adaptation. The color of its skin is dark, high lung capacity and development of the thorax; they have two more litters of blood then the average, with high content of red globules, what grant them great physical resistance.
Many of them are dedicated to the elaboration of beautiful crafts and fine fabrics in alpaca wool.
In the plains and mountains of Puno it will be common to find
herds of llamas and alpacas, being the area of more intense development of this cattle raising, originating beautiful panoramas in places where trees and vegetation almost not exist.
Visiting
Lake Titicaca and Puno
Lake Titicaca
The highest navigable lake in the world where going through their waters is to travel by beautiful landscapes having for nice scenery the snowy mountain of the Cordillera Real (Real Mountain range) of Bolivia. Inside the lake exist a protected area of the natural ecosystem, you can also visit the islands of
Uros, Taquile and Amantani, or carry out a small cruise to Bolivia.
Taquile Island Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
UNESCO proclaimed to Taquile Island and its textile art
as a new Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. On
November 25, 2005 the Director-General of UNESCO,
Koïchiro Matsuura, proclaimed 43 new Masterpieces of the
Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity.
Floating islands of the Uros
Lake Titicaca's top tourist attraction.
Old descending Aymaras that build their houses over floating artificial islands that elaborate themselves on the waters of the Titicaca, in which they inhabit in organizations and with ancestral customs.
Puno
City
The beauty and charm of the city, are a mixture of their typical constructions of Andean architecture in the sides of the hills until the bank of the Titicaca Lake, and that of their people, humble, poor and kind. Visit
Plaza de Armas, the Cathedral, La Casa del Corregidor
17th Century (Deustua Nº 576), the Arco Deustua,
Huasajpata Park and the new Mirador del Condor
Museums
in Puno
It has modest museums of regional archaeological pieces as the Museo Municipal
Carlos Dreyer (Municipal Museum Dreyer) located in Conde
de Lemos Nº 289 and the Museo de Arte Popular de Puno (Museum of Popular Art of Puno).
Archaeological places
of Puno
On the area of Puno flourished old pre-Inca civilizations like Tiahuanaco, Pucara and then the Inca. The best legacies are the chullpas of Sillustani and the fortress and citadel of Pucara
and his Museo Litico Pucara.
Around Puno
Cities and small towns that flourished to the banks of the
Lake Titicaca keep colonial jewels, outstands Pomata, Juli and Chucuito.
Yavari Project
This steamship was build in United Kingdom in 1861, then
was discharged in packing cases and pieces in Peruvian
port of Arica, from where incredibly being hauled by
mule over the Andes to Puno, that took 6 years to
complete. Now is registered as Museum, berthed in Puno
Bay, outside the Sonesta Posada Hotel del Inca Puno.
Virgin of Candelaria Feast
The Feast in honor of Virgin of Candelaria, patron of the city of Puno, is made
in the first fortnight of February each year, and represents the largest and
most important cultural event, musical and dancing by Peru, and one of the three
most significant in South America along with Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the
Carnaval de Oruro, in the amount of symbols and artistic and cultural
manifestations of the cultures themselves Quechua, Aymara and mixed by Highlands
Andean and the volume of people directly and indirectly involved in its
realization. The core of the festival is the musical and dance expression and
organized by the Regional Federation of Folklore and Culture of Puno, calling
the presence of more than 150 sets, between native dances that come from the
communities and biases of Puno, and sets of dances organized in different
districts of the City of Puno, mostly known as 'dances with costumes "' ', which
directly involved 50 thousand dancers and some 15 thousand musicians, adding to
its indirect stake about 25 thousand people including directors, sponsorships,
embroiderers, artisans in the making of masks, boots and shoes, bells and other
items. This festival is presented the following times: trials, novenas, albs
festive candles entry, entry k'apos, eve, February 2, eighth, veneration,
cacharpari
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