Peru - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 782

9

sits a usually placid mirror-like lake,
reflecting the big sky back on itself.
A national reserve since 1978, the lake
has more than sixty varieties of birds,
fourteen species of native fish and
eighteen types of amphibians. It's also
the world's largest high-altitude body
of water, at 284m deep and more than
8500 square kilometres in area.
The unique, man-made Uros Floating
Islands , which have been inhabited since
their construction centuries ago by Uros
Indians, are an impressive sight. Tour
groups only visit a couple of the islands
where the people are used to tourism; they
will greet you, offer you handicrafts for
sale and possibly suggest a tour on one of
their boats, made from the same totora
reeds as their island homes, for a small fee.
For a more authentic experience, visit the
communities who live on the fixed islands
of Taquile and Amantaní , who still wear
traditional clothes and follow ancient local
customs. There are, in fact, more than
seventy islands in the lake, the largest and
most sacred being the Island of the Sun
(see p.179), an ancient Inca temple site on
the Bolivian side of the border that divides
the lake's southern shore. Titicaca is an
Aymara word meaning “Puma's Rock”,
which refers to an unusual boulder on the
Island of the Sun. The Bolivian islands can
only be visited from Copacabana.

Huaraz and the
Cordillera Blanca
Sliced north to south by the parallel
Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Negra
(the white and black mountain ranges),
the department of Ancash offers some of
the best hiking and mountaineering in the
Americas. Its capital Huaraz - eight hours
by bus from Lima - is tourist-friendly, has
a lively atmosphere and makes an ideal
base for exploring some nearby lagoons,
ruins, glaciers and remote trails. Through
the valley known as the Callejón de
Huaylas is the pretty town of Caraz , which
offers a taste of traditional Andean life.

HUARAZ
With glaciated peaks and excellent
trekking nearby, HUARAZ is a place to
stock up, hire guides and equipment, and
relax with great food and drink after a
breathtaking expedition. While there are
only a couple of tourist attractions to visit
in the city itself, the spectacular scenery
and great cafés make it a pleasant stop for
even non-adventurous spirits. Make sure
to acclimatize before trying any hikes;
Huaraz is 3090m above sea level.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Huaraz was levelled by an earthquake
in 1970 and today most of the houses
are single-storey modern structures
topped with gleaming tin roofs. The
one surviving pre-earthquake street,
Jiron José Olaya , serves as a sad reminder
of Huaraz's colonial past and is worth a
stroll down to see what this city was once
like. The Museo Arqueologico de Ancash ,
at Avenida Luzuriaga 762 on the Plaza de
Armas (Tues-Sat 8.30am-5.15pm &
Sun 9am-2pm; S5; T 043 721 551), is
worth a look for its attractive landscaped
gardens and superb collection of
ceramics, as well as some trepanned
skulls. On the other side of the Plaza de
Armas is the Catedral ; the vast blue-tiled
roof makes a good landmark and, if you
look closely, appears to mirror the
glaciated Nevado Huanstán to the east.

CROSSING INTO BOLIVIA
The most popular routes to Bolivia involve
overland road travel, crossing the frontier
either at Yunguyo/Kasani (best for
Copacabana) or at the principal border of
Desaguadero (best for La Paz). En route
to either you'll pass by some of Titicaca's
more interesting colonial settlements,
each with its own individual styles of
architecture. By far the easiest way is to
take a direct bus from Puno to either
Copacabana or La Paz, which will stop for
the formalities at the border. Otherwise,
from Puno you can take a combi to
Yunguyo, then another to Kasani, then
walk across the border and take a Bolivian
combi for the ten-minute ride to
Copacabana. From Copacabana it is
approximately five hours to La Paz.