Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Challapampa
The island's northernmost settlement,
CHALLAPAMPA
was founded by the Incas as a ser-
vice centre for the nearby ceremonial complexes. Set on a narrow spit of land between two
large bays on the east coast of the island, the village has a small museum, and several places
tostay.Ashortwalkfromthevillage lieseveralfascinating
Inca sites
.Freelocalguidesmeet
boats and can show you around the area, though many travellers find this quite a slow pro-
cess.
The museum
Daily 9am-5.30pm • Bs10; includes admission to the Kasapata, the Santuario and La Chincana; keep hold of
the ticket, as there are a couple of checkpoints
The village's
museum
has artefacts found both on the island and at sites off the coast, where
offerings were dropped into the water, and tales of lost underwater cities persist to this day.
The collection includes bronze idols, Inca and Tiwanaku pottery, and miniature human and
llama figures delicately carved from spondylus shells.
Kasapata
Daily 9am-5.30pm • Ticket for
Challapampa museum
includes admission; Bs10
From Challapampa it's a twenty-minute walk northwest along a steep but easy-to-follow path
to the ruins of a substantial Inca site called
Kasapata
, which was probably a
tambo
(way-
station) for pilgrims. It's mostly rubble now, but to the left of the path a large building still
stands with five characteristically Incan trapezoidal doorways, while to the north is a large
carved stone block that probably had ritual importance.
The Santuario
Daily 9am-5.30pm • Ticket for
Challapampa museum
includes admission; Bs10
Another twenty minutes further along the path beyond Kasapata is the
Santuario
, a ruined
Inca complex built around a sacred rock. The
entrance
to the Santuario is marked by the
remnants of a low wall. About 100m beyond the entrance you can make out the rectangu-
lar foundations of a series of buildings that housed the priests and servants who attended the
temple complex.
Inside the Santuario a path crosses a bare rock marked by two depressions shaped like
giant
footprints
- dubbed the “Huellas del Sol” (“Footprints of the Sun”) - before reaching the
centre of the sanctuary. Here stands
Titikala
, the sacred rock from which the Incas believed
the sun and moon first rose and after which Lago Titicaca was named, though there's little
in the appearance of this large outcrop of weather-beaten pink sandstone to suggest what an
important religious site it once was. During Inca times gold, silver, coca, shells, birds' feath-
ers and sacrificial animals (and the occasional human) were brought here as offerings to the
sun god
, Inti, while the rock itself would have been covered in fine cloth and silver and gold
plates; in the open space on its southern side was a large stone basin where sacred libations
of
chicha
were poured and an
altar
where sacrifices were made.
