Puno (for Lake Titicaca)
Puno is famous for Lake Titicaca – the highest navigable lake on Earth at over 3,800 meters above sea level. It’s here that people come to visit the man-made floating reed islands, with the chance to stay overnight with a local family on one of the remote islands a bit further out. I would recommend this option if you have time as I found the half-day and day tour trip really set up and inauthentic. Not to mention it has induced a culture of begging, even amongst the local children.
Others come to Puno, extending their lake visit into a means to also connect into Bolivia via Copacabana.
Cusco and the Sacred Valley
Cusco, once the capital of the Inca Empire, is, of course, the starting point for those on their way to the famed Machu Picchu – the grand highlight of any Peru trip.
However, there’s more to Cusco than a gateway for those making the pilgrimage to the ancient Inca Site. The centre of Cusco itself is full of sites, including Colonial architecture and stone walls and ruins of Inca days that line the steep cobble-stoned streets. Fun tours in Cusco can be found in abundance if you want deeper historical and cultural insights. Hip coffee shops, vegan eateries, independent design stores and funky hangouts define the city, especially in the bohemian San Blas neighbourhood.
There’s also a few key sites and treks that make for great day trips from Cusco, including.
The Salinas Salt Ponds are a terrace system of evaporated salt ponds a short drive from the town of Maras, located around one hour outside of Cusco. A man-made layered landscape in the Sacred Valley, these salt basins have been in use since the days of the Incas, with a section now open to the public to marvel at.
Moray is an archaeological site of ringed Inca ruins in a remote area near Maras (and easily combined with Salinas). Defined by its circular terraces at a plateau of 3,500 metres, it is believed this was used for agricultural research, with the different terrace levels having their own microclimates.
Sacsayhuaman is a hilltop Inca citadel that sits on the northern fringes of Cusco and is said to be some kind of a fortress overlooking the city. It is known for its huge dry stones that fit together in the same way as those on the old Inca walls in Cusco – without any kind of mortar or filling such as soil or clay.
