Things to Do in Puno, Beyond the Islands

Short answer: Puno is the Peruvian city on Lake Titicaca at about 12,560 ft (3,830 m), and most visitors give it one boat day and leave. The things worth staying for are on land: the stone burial towers of Sillustani above Lake Umayo, the Candelaria festival that fills the streets with dancers in early February, the Aymara shore road through Chucuito and Juli, and the iron steamer Yavari in the bay. Two nights covers the islands and one of these. Three covers them all.

Puno in one paragraph

Puno is a working city of about 135,000 people (2017 census), founded in 1668 as a silver town and laid out on a slope between the hills and the bay. The center is small: a cathedral on the plaza, the pedestrian Calle Lima with the restaurants, the port ten minutes downhill where the island boats leave. It is colder and higher than Cusco, about 1,400 ft (430 m) higher, which is why every trip puts it after Cusco and never before. Read our Lake Titicaca facts guide for the lake and our guide to getting from Cusco to Lake Titicaca for the road.

What people get wrong is the schedule. They arrive at 6 p.m., take the 7:30 a.m. boat, and leave on the evening bus having seen the port and a hotel. Give Puno a second night and the city stops being a transit stop.

Sillustani

Sillustani is a hill of stone burial towers, called chullpas, on a peninsula in Lake Umayo, about 21 mi (34 km) northwest of Puno by road and a half day from the city. The towers were built by the Qulla people, who ruled this part of the altiplano before the Incas conquered it in the 15th century, and the tallest stands about 39 ft (12 m). Each one held a family of the nobility, with the single opening facing east toward the sunrise. The fitted stonework on the later towers is as fine as anything in Cusco, and the Lagarto chullpa, named for the lizard carved on it, is the one everyone photographs.

Go in the late afternoon. The wind drops, the light turns the towers gold and Lake Umayo below is a mirror with a flat-topped island in it. Many towers were blown open by grave robbers and some were never finished, so you see cross sections of how they were built, including a ramp of earth and stone left against one wall. Walk slowly: the site sits near 12,800 ft (3,900 m) and the path climbs from the parking lot.

Sillustani is not inside any of our packages. Most Puno hotels and the agency can arrange a half-day visit on request, usually on the afternoon of your arrival or the morning you leave for Cusco. The entrance fee is paid in soles at the gate.

Candelaria, the first two weeks of February

The Fiesta de la Virgen de la Candelaria is the biggest festival in Peru by number of dancers, and UNESCO added it to its list of intangible heritage in 2014. It runs through the first half of February, with a dawn mass, a purification ceremony, a procession of the Virgin and two contests of dance troupes that bring several thousand dancers and musicians from across the region, from both Quechua and Aymara communities. The Diablada, the dance of masked devils with brass bands, is the one Puno is known for, and the costumes are made in workshops around the city all year.

If you want to see it, book Puno hotels months ahead, because the city sells out and prices double. If you do not, avoid the first two weeks of February, when boats and buses are packed and the streets are closed for parades.

The Aymara shore

South of Puno the road to Bolivia follows the lake through Aymara towns that the boat crowds never see. The Aymara Route day tour covers the shore and returns to Puno, and the one-way version to Copacabana uses the same road to cross into Bolivia. Both cost US$127 per person with lunch and entrances.

Chucuito

Chucuito, 11 mi (18 km) from Puno at 12,713 ft (3,875 m), was the capital of the Lupaqa, the Aymara kingdom that held this shore before and under the Incas, and later a Spanish treasury town with two colonial churches. Beside the church of Santo Domingo is Inka Uyo, a walled courtyard of carved stones that guides present as a fertility temple. Be careful with that story. The mushroom-shaped stones were arranged there in recent decades, according to press reports quoting the people who did it, and the fertility rite is a modern tale. The courtyard itself is old. Our guides tell you both versions.

Molloco and the raised fields

Between Chucuito and Juli the road passes the chullpas of Molloco on a hill above the water and, on the plain, the waru waru: raised planting beds separated by water channels, a technique from about 300 BC in which the water stores the day's heat and keeps frost off the potatoes at night. Communities near the lake rebuilt some fields in the 1980s with help from archaeologists, and they are still planted.

Amaru Muru and Juli

Amaru Muru is a red sandstone outcrop near Juli with a tall smooth recess cut into the rock face and a small niche at the base, like a door that does not open. Aymara stories tie it to Inca priests and the lake. You will find it online as a stargate. It is a carved rock with a legend, and that is enough. Juli, at 12,690 ft (3,868 m), was the Jesuit base on the lake and had a printing press by 1612, the third in the Americas. Its stone churches earned it the nickname of the Little Rome of the Americas, and the town is still about two-thirds Aymara-speaking (2007 census). The guide to the Aymara of Lake Titicaca explains who lives on this shore.

In the city

Three things in Puno itself fill a half day. The Yavari is an iron steamer built on the Thames in 1862, shipped to Peru in 2,766 numbered pieces along with its sister ship, carried by mule from the coast to Puno over six years and launched on the lake in 1870. Restored since 1987, it is a museum moored in the bay, and the volunteers who keep it will show you the engine room. The Kuntur Wasi viewpoint, a condor sculpture up about 700 steps above the city, is the place to see the bay at sunset, and the climb at this altitude is a workout. Dinner is on Calle Lima, where the trout and the quinoa soup are good everywhere.

How many days in Puno

Two nights is the right number for most people: arrive by bus from Cusco, spend a full day on the boat to the Uros and Taquile, and leave the next morning, with Sillustani on the afternoon you arrive or the morning you go. Three nights adds the Aymara shore, or a night with a family on Amantaní instead of the Taquile day. One night only works if you fly out of Juliaca late and accept seeing the islands and nothing else. Our Lake Titicaca tours page compares the trips by nights on the lake, and the Uros floating islands guide covers the boat day.

Fact	Value	Source
Altitude	about 12,560 ft (3,830 m)	en.wikipedia.org
Population	135,288 (2017 census)	en.wikipedia.org
Founded	1668	en.wikipedia.org
Airport	Juliaca (Inca Manco Cápac), about 45 minutes by road	en.wikipedia.org
Sillustani	about 21 mi (34 km) northwest, near 12,800 ft (3,900 m), tallest tower about 39 ft (12 m)	en.wikipedia.org
Candelaria festival	first half of February, UNESCO intangible heritage 2014	ich.unesco.org
Chucuito	11 mi (18 km) south, 12,713 ft (3,875 m)	en.wikipedia.org
Juli	12,690 ft (3,868 m), printing press in 1612, about 69% Aymara first language (2007)	en.wikipedia.org
Yavari steamer	built 1862 on the Thames, launched on the lake 1870, museum in Puno bay	en.wikipedia.org
Aymara Route day tours	US$127 per person, lunch and entrances included
Nights to plan	2 for the islands and Sillustani, 3 with the Aymara shore

Sources

• Puno, Wikipedia (altitude, population, founding, Kuntur Wasi, airport)
• Sillustani, Wikipedia (Qulla builders, tower height, east-facing openings, ramp, grave robbers)
• UNESCO, Festivity of Virgen de la Candelaria of Puno (2014)
• Lupaca, Wikipedia (Chucuito as capital, Aymara, Inca conquest)
• Chucuito, Wikipedia (altitude, distance)
• Atlas Obscura on Slate, the Inka Uyo stones (quoting the New York Times, 2006)
• Waru Waru, Wikipedia (raised fields, dating, 1980s rehabilitation)
• Juli, Wikipedia (altitude, printing press 1612, Aymara speakers)
• Yavari, Wikipedia (1862, 2,766 pieces, mules, 1870 launch, museum)