Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
22
La Orilla
B3
C3
B3
Drinking
25
Nemos Bar
B3
26
Waykys
C4
Information
C4
Transport
28
Boats to Isla del Sol & Isla de la Luna
A3
29
Buses to Puno, Cuzco, Arequipa & Lima
C3
30
Buses, Micros & Minibuses to La Paz
C3
31
Minibuses to Peru
C3
History
After the fall and disappearance of the Tiwanaku culture, the Kollas (Aymará) rose to
power in the Titicaca region. Their most prominent deities included the sun and moon
(who were considered husband and wife), Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the ambient
mountain spirits known as
acha- chilas
and
apus
. Among the idols erected on the shores
of the Manco Capac peninsula was Kota Kahuaña, also known as Copacahuana (meaning
'lake view' in Aymará), a deity with the head of a human and the body of a fish.
Once the Aymará had been subsumed into the Inca empire, Emperor Tupac- Yupanqui
founded the settlement of Copa- cabana as a wayside rest for pilgrims visiting the
huaca
(shrine) known as Titi Khar'ka (Rock of the Puma), a former site of human sacrifice at the
northern end of Isla del Sol.
Before the arrival of Spanish priests in the mid-16th century, the Incas had divided local
inhabitants into two distinct groups. Those faithful to the empire were known as
Haransaya and were assigned positions of power. Those who resisted, the Hurinsaya, were
relegated to manual labor. It was a separation that went entirely against the grain of the
community-oriented Aymará culture, and the floods and crop failures that befell them in
the 1570s were attributed to this social aberration.
