Puno

According to Inca legend, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo rose from Lake Titicaca to found the Inca state, and the shores around Puno were home to cultures such as the Pukara, Tiwanaku and Colla before the Inca. When the viceroy Francisco de Toledo visited in 1573, Puno had about 4,700 inhabitants. In 1657 silver was found at Laikakota, and a mining town, San Luis de Alba, grew up about 5 km from today's city under the Salcedo brothers.

In 1668 the viceroy Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro, Count of Lemos, had San Luis de Alba destroyed and the Salcedo brothers executed, and founded a Spanish town on the site of the present centre as capital of the province of Paucarcolla. It was renamed San Carlos de Puno, after King Charles II, and the founding is celebrated on 4 November. Colonial churches were built to serve the Spanish and to evangelise the Quechua, and the cathedral was finished in 1757. From 1776 to 1796 Puno belonged to the new Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata before returning to Peru.

After independence the university was founded in 1856, and steamships arrived on the lake, among them the Yavari, ordered in 1861. The town grew slowly — to about 7,900 people in 1875 and 13,800 in 1940 — and then rapidly as migrants came in from the countryside. Since December 2022 Puno and nearby Juliaca have been centres of the protests against the government; on 9 January 2023 at least 17 people were killed in Juliaca during a police crackdown on protesters.

Puno is a meeting point of the Quechua and Aymara worlds, and music and dance are at the centre of its identity. Its best-known dances include the Wifala de Asillo, the Ichu Carnival, the Tuntuna, the Khashua de Capachica and the Pandilla Puneña, and every February the city gives itself over to the Festividad de la Virgen de la Candelaria. The festival honours the city's patron with music and more than 200 dances performed by costumed troupes, and mixes Quechua, Aymara and mestizo traditions. UNESCO inscribed it as intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2014.

The lake shapes the region's culture as well. The Uru people live on about 120 islands built from bundles of totora reed, renewing the top layers constantly and building a new island when the old one sinks; they make boats from the same reed. On Taquile, men knit from boyhood while women spin, dye and weave the wide belts worn by everyone on the island, and UNESCO proclaimed Taquile and its textile art a masterpiece of intangible heritage in 2005. Amantaní is known for its textiles and ceramics, and both islands host visitors in family homes.

Puno had about 138,000 people in the 2025 census. It is the capital of the Puno Region, and it keeps growing as families arrive from the farming communities around it in search of education and work. The National University of the Altiplano, founded in 1856, is a large presence, and government offices, schools and trade employ much of the city.

The surrounding region lives from farming and herding: llamas and alpacas graze the high plains, and potatoes and quinoa are grown around the lake. Tourism supports hotels, agencies, boatmen and the island communities, for whom boat visits from Puno have become the main source of income. Juliaca, the busier trading city inland, and the border towns depend heavily on commerce with Bolivia, much of it contraband.

The altitude sets the rhythm: bright, sharp mornings, strong sun at midday and nights that fall below freezing in winter. The protests and road blockades since 2022 hit incomes hard and reflect long-standing grievances in the south.

Puno's food comes from the lake and the high plain. Trout from Titicaca is the local staple for visitors and residents alike, fried or grilled and served with potatoes, rice or salad, and alpaca meat is common on menus. Quinoa, grown around the lake, goes into soups and into pesque, a thick dish of quinoa cooked in milk. Chairo is the hearty Andean soup of the region, made with chuño — freeze-dried potato — meat and vegetables.

Everyday eating is cheap. In and around the central market and along Jirón Tacna, small restaurants serve set menús, a soup and a main dish, at lunch and dinner, and the juguerías on the market's upper floor blend fresh fruit juices. Calle Lima has the restaurants aimed at visitors, with trout, alpaca, quinoa dishes and pizza.

Coca tea is offered for the altitude, and the leaf has its own small museum in the city. On Amantaní the hillsides are terraced and planted by hand with wheat, quinoa and potatoes, and families who host visitors cook simple meals from what the island grows.