Today we have a half day tour to Sillustani, a pre-Incan cemetery, built by the Quilla people, on the shores of Lake Umayo. a small lake north of Puno. The tombs, called Chullpa were originally built into the ground and for a single family. However, as more family members died additional structure was built on top of the original until some of the tombs were quite tall.
When the Incas conquered the area the tombs began to take on Inca construction features. The tallest chullpa is almost 50 feet high.
There is a small village of San Antonio at the base of Sillustani. The village is very new and was founded when tourist started coming to the site. So the local people decided to set up shops and a few homes so that they could take advantage of the tourist business. There is a long, lovely paved “avenue" from the parking lot up to the gate leading to Sillustani…it is lined with many small shops.
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| Bulls on a rooftop |
Nearby is a small uninhabited island except for a family of caretakers. The island is a sanctuary for the rare vicuna’s, a cousin of the llamas and alpacas. There are currently about 40 vicunas on the island. Recently about 20 of the animals were relocated to other sanctuaries. The vicuna is highly territorial, is smaller than its two bigger cousins and has not been domesticated.
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| Vicuna Island |
The wool of the vicuna is highly prized but is hard to obtain because the animals are wild. However, in order to minimize poaching, there is an annual round up and any animals with fur longer than 2.5 cm (~1 inch) are shorn.
Around the small lake we saw some flamingos…
and come grooves or ditches cut into the shoreline. These grooves helped to make small microclimates, the better to grow some types of crops. The ancients and the locals seem to now their land very well.
We then headed back to town. Puno is built on the sides of the mountains surrounding Lake Titicaca. We aren't seeing much of it though as we have no city tour and so far the drives haven't taken us into the city proper.
We wandered the grounds of the hotel a bit. It is right on the lakefront with a long walkway out to the lake.
We actually both took fairly long naps. All our meals here are at the hotel as we aren't located near anything else.
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