article: Ask any Peruvian where the best place to party is and you'll always get the same reply: 'Puno!' The city's colourful fiestas, combining Spanish and Inca traditions, often last for days. During the fortnight-long Candlemas celebrations, dancers parade through the streets. Men dress as multi-coloured dragons or monsters, while local women, known as cholitas, wear skirts puffed up with petticoats and small bowler hats. Reeds all about it: Hand-crafted boats on the gentle surface of Lake Titicaca . Arriving in Puno, you wonder at first where on earth the inhabitants get their energy. This city of 100,000 souls on the shores of Lake Titicaca could leave you breathless for all the wrong reasons. Situated on a vast plateau in the Andes, at an altitude north of 13,000 ft, it is higher than any Alpine ski resort, and you need to go gently the first few days you're here. Hotels stock oxygen to revive tourists from soroche - altitude sickness - an affliction that causes shortness of breath, headaches and worse. But once acclimatised, you're in for a treat. Though its architecture is underwhelming (with the exception of a splendid central square), what entrances every visitor to Puno is Lake Titicaca. One of the world's largest lakes, and its highest navigable one, it stretches 110 miles by 38 miles across Peru and Bolivia. It is vast, remote, unworldly. The high peaks of the Andes frame it in the distance, some glistening with snow. There are more familiar sights, too. At the town's busy port, you'll see a gunboat called the Yavari, which has a distinctively British look. It was built in London in 1862, then transported, piece by piece, across the Andes to Puno, where it ferried people around for 70 years until the roads made it obsolete and it was left to rot. It was saved from the scrapheap by an English woman, Meriel Larken, who restored and turned it into a B&B. Local life: The ingenious floating Uros Islands in the middle of Lake Titicaca are made from totora reeds . The accommodation onboard is suitably nautical - you sleep in bunk beds. If you're not spending the night, for a small donation you can just tour the ship. The port is the gateway to Puno's fascinating islands. A standard, full-day tour will first take you to the Uros Islands, originally built by the Uru people as a way to escape rival tribes. These man-made floating structures are hewn from mats of totora reeds, which grow abundantly in the shallows of the lake. Secured to the bottom of the lake by ropes, as the layers at the bottom rot, new ones are added to the top to keep it dry and afloat. Stepping on them feels decidedly squidgy, as if you're treading on a giant waterbed. Uru women greet you dressed in wide-brimmed hats and brightly-coloured skirts. Islanders make the most of their income from tourists, so will invite you into their cosy, pointy-roofed huts, which smell of hay. The only hint of the 21st century? A television in the corner. After the Uros, the next port of call is an island in the conventional sense. Taquile, with its craggy, terraced hillsides dotted with sheep, is reminiscent of the Aegean Islands. It's around the same size as Sark in the Channel Islands and home to 1,700 people. A glimpse of traditional Peru: You can meet Uru islanders, and go inside their homes, on the lake . Like Sark, cars are banned here, but the island's elders also forbid beasts of burden, such as donkeys and horses, which leaves the locals to lug everything around on their backs. The other thing you'll notice is that the men all wear distinctive woollen hats, reminiscent of Victorian nightcaps. These denote their marital status - the tip of a bachelor's hat is white to signify it is unfinished. Knitting here is the preserve of men, who pass the tradition down from father to son. On marrying, a man may wear a totally red hat, to show that he, like his hat, is now complete. Early evening in Puno and the streets are abuzz. Head to the pedestrianised Calle Lima and a restaurant called La Casona. Here, you'll eat some of the city's best ceviche, the national dish of raw fish 'cooked' by being marinated in lime juice, a trend that has caught on in the UK. Being so close to the bountiful Lake Titicaca, Puno has some of Peru's best ceviche restaurants. Another excuse, as if you needed one, to visit this wonderful place. KLM (www.klm.com) flies to Lima, Peru, from £541 including taxes. Journey Latin America (020 8600 1881, www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk) has a 12-day Value Peru: Sacred Valley Of The Incas to Lake Titicaca itinerary, visiting Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Puno and Lake Titicaca. The trip costs from £2,290 per person based on two people sharing, all flights, transfers, B&B accommodation, most meals and excursions and a visit to the Lake Titicaca islands.
highlights: Puno is not the most famous place in Peru - but it is one of the most fun .
  It sits on the west bank of the famous (and spectacular) Lake Titicaca .
  Visitors can sail on the lake to visit the fabled artificial Uros Islands .
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