Sillustani, Peru: Beyond Lake Titicaca

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 6 years ago

Sillustani, Peru: Beyond Lake Titicaca

By Keith Austin
A chullpa at Sillustani.

A chullpa at Sillustani.Credit: Yael Rojas

If you are ever in the southern regions of Peru, visiting Lake Titicaca and its floating reed islands perhaps, or pummelling a pinata in Puno, it's worth taking a little detour to the lesser-known pre-Incan cemetery of Sillustani.

Just a 45-minute ride from the lakeside town of Puno, this ancient burial ground consists of a smattering of tombs built above ground in cylindrical, chimney-style structures called chullpas.

These are, in turn, bordered by the eight-kilometre long and three-kilometre wide Lake Umayo, which takes an egregiously charming hairpin turn right behind the ruins.

Lake Titicaca in full splendor.

Lake Titicaca in full splendor. Credit: Alex Bryce

The lake (at 3844 metres) and the funerary towers (3897 metres) are even higher up than Titicaca, which sits at a heart-racing, headache-making, eyeball-bleeding 3812 metres above sea level.

We start out from Titilaka Lodge, a luxury hotel on the banks of Lake Titicaca, where, the night before last, I'd tossed and turned with a mild but still disturbing case of altitude sickness. There was, of course, no eyeball bleeding but it certainly felt like there could be. Heed the warnings and take all and any precautions is my advice.

Two days later and we are on the road to Sillustani for a quick look before heading to Inca Manco Capac International Airport in nearby Juliaca for the flight back to Lima.

Titilaka Lodge, Peru.

Titilaka Lodge, Peru.

The road takes us around the backblocks of Puno and into gently rolling hill country peppered with small villages, parched grasslands, exhausted-looking donkeys and small streams where, it seems, used nappies go to die.

Advertisement

Sillustani is at the end of a road that skirts the edge of a few lagoons and ponds, where we stop to watch groups of pink-and-white flamingoes with question-mark heads and charcoal-coloured legs stalk the shallows.

At our destination we stop in a car and coach park that could hold a sizeable football crowd but which is pretty empty. It's like somebody threw a funeral and nobody came.

The view from Titilaka Lodge is spectacular.

The view from Titilaka Lodge is spectacular.

From here, it's a slow walk up the gently sloping tarmac road that leads to the cemetery. It is lined with custom-made, thatched stalls selling brightly coloured souvenirs and those woolly Peruvian hats with the earflaps – the ones that nobody ever wears when they get home.

The chullpas here, explains our guide, are all that is left of the Aymara people, who were conquered by the Inca in the 15th century. Veneration of the dead was a large part of their culture and the towers were built to house Aymara nobility after death. Ludovico Bertonio, an Italian Jesuit missionary who lived in the area in the early 1600s, poetically referred to the stone towers as uta Amaya or 'houses of the soul'.

Sadly, many of the tombs were left unfinished or dynamited by raiders over the years, and only imagination can bring them back to life. They would have been a magnificent sight though, dominating the skyline of this flattish, desolate region halfway to heaven.

A time-weathered chullpa at Sillustani.

A time-weathered chullpa at Sillustani.Credit: Heinz Pardo

On our way up to the flat summit we pass a traditionally dressed local woman leading a herd of llama. She is wearing a puffy, once-red skirt, a blue cardigan and a faded pink bowler-style hat. She is a welcoming splash of colour in the dry, brown landscape. A man with her (dressed in what can only be described as hobo chic) herds the animals by throwing stones at them.

Part-way up our guide stops and launches into the history of the area as an astronomical temple, which involves ley lines, shamans, coca leaves, meditation, sacred fire, chakras and third eyes. I prefer it when he's explaining that the local Aymarans carved massive stone blocks into eerily straight rectangles, in contrast to the Incas who chucked in any stone they could get their hands on. That, I can get my third eye around.

Chullpas can be found pretty much everywhere throughout the region, but these are said to be the best preserved. There are a few that have to be held together with wooden bands and propped up by poles, but all in all they are impressive. The tallest is 12 metres tall and, like the others, has a small opening facing east – where the sun was supposedly reborn by Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) each day.

Chullpas at Sillustani cemetery.

Chullpas at Sillustani cemetery.Credit: Fernando Lopez

The interiors were built to hold extended families and the belongings they needed for the journey to the next world. The corpses are long gone now, but most of them became mummified and survived for centuries thanks to the dry air.

After wandering around the ruins for a while, we walk over to the cliff edge at the rear of the complex to look at the still, blue waters of Lake Umayo and take lots of photographs that nobody will ever see. It is an extraordinarily beautiful spot.

The way down is via a steep path bordered by tall, drystone walls. At the top we come across another woman sitting by the side of the path. She is clothed all in black except for the usual brown derby hat perched jauntily on her head like a miniature chullpa.

Tourists and locals at Taquille Lake Titicaca.

Tourists and locals at Taquille Lake Titicaca.Credit: Alex bryce

By her side, lying at full, comfortable stretch in the dirt, is a baby alpaca. A small gratuity is expected, and given, in return for a stroke of the prostrate beast. It feels beautifully soft and alive, like a posh scarf filled with entrails.

There's life in that old cemetery yet.

TRIP NOTES

MORE

traveller.com.au/peru

titilaka.com

peru.travel

FLY

LATAM operates daily from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Santiago, Chile, with onward connections to Lima. Fares start at about $1938 but special offers are available for as little as $1549. See latam.com/en_au for more details.

There is no requirement for vaccinations going in to Peru but returning travellers might be asked for a valid yellow fever vaccination certificate at customs in Australia. See smartraveller.gov.au.

STAY

Titilaka Lodge has low-season double King rooms from about $1300 a night. Visit titilaka.com for more details. Excursions are extra.

Keith Austin was a guest of PROMPERU.

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading