Posted
on November 1, 2015
In
Puno, Peru, people are celebrating their founding in 1668 by the
Spaniards. And they are doing so, in part, by re-enacting something
that was supposed to have happened centuries and centuries before!!
The
legendary founders of the Inca empire, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo,
are said to have risen out of Lake Titicaca (near where Puno is
located) with instructions from the gods to create an empire by
uniting all the various peoples living in the region.
It is this
birth-from-the-lake that is enacted at the beginning of the week-long Puno festival.
Some
other festival activities include folkloric dancing and music and the
display and sale of crafts.
Learn
more about Puno:
You
can get an idea of life in Puno from this video.
Learn
about Lake Titicaca:
The
highest navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca is located between
Bolivia and Peru, high up in the Andes Mountains, at 12,500 feet
(3,812 m). (Navigable
means that the lake can be crossed with ships and boats.)
One
of the special things about the lake is that it is dotted with
“islands” that were created by people! During ancient times, the
Uros did not want to be taken over by the Inca, so they used reeds to
build floating islands so that they could live out on the lake. The
strategy worked: the Incas left the Uros alone.
To
this day, people continue to live on the floating islands. They make
houses and boats and tools and fishing nets and watchtowers and even
souvenirs to sell to tourists out of the same totora reeds that the
islands are made of!
Check
out this short video about the Uros' islands.
Learn
about the Incan Empire:
The
Inca centered their empire in Peru but spread north and south along
the Andes mountains and the western part of South America.
Find out
about their lifestyle, their inventions, and their culture by
checking out these websites:
Also
on this date:
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Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
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here are my Pinterest boards for:
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