Puno is a rather bleak former mining city that hugs the shores of Lake Titicaca. It is believed that from here, Manco Cápac – the first Inca king and direct descendent of the Sun – rose from the lake with his sister to found the Inca Empire.
The people here are both Aymara and Quechua, the Aymaras concentrated mostly to the south and east and Quechuas to the north and west.
