Chucuito

V!VA User‘s Description

Situated 18 kilometers south of Puno, on the southern shores of Lake Titicaca, Chucuito is a small, but charming Aymara town. Like other areas in Peru, the town has a rich cultural history, which is evident in its town squares and colonial churches. In addition to once being the primary Inca settlement in this region, Chucuito was also once the capital of the whole province. Today, this unique town surrounded by agricultural fields that descend toward the shores of Lake Titicaca has a number of attractions that are sure to capture any visitor’s attention.

Sitting near the upper Plaza de Armas, Nuestra Señora de la Ausunción boasts a spectacular Renaissance facade dating from 1601. The second colonial church in Chucuito, Santo Domingo, has magnificently painted stone arches and a single ancient stone tower. Inside, there is an altar carved in pan de oro. The most curious attraction in Chucuito is, ironically, just next door to Santo Domingo.

Inca Uyo is a walled enclosure, which from a distance appears to be a mushroom-filled garden. Closer inspection will reveal, however, that these variously shaped stones are phallic sculptures erected as part of an ancient fertility ritual. Some of the sculptures (all anatomically accurate of course) point upwards towards the sun god, Inti, while others are jammed into the ground towards Pachamama, or Mother Earth. Rising from the center of this fertility garden, like a king watching over his subjects, is the largest phallus. Your guides, straight-faced village children, will provide detailed accounts of how virgins once sat for hours on top of the phalluses in the hopes of increasing their fertility.

Even today women are purported to sneak into the garden with coca leaves and chica to perform a fertility ceremony to help them get pregnant. Like its curious sculptures the origins of this garden are a bit of an enigma. Some say it was built by the Aymaras or Incas, while others contend that the phallus-shaped stones would never have survived the Spanish, who had a penchant for destroying indigenous idols. Fantastic farce or ancient fertility garden, Inca Uyo is definitely worth a peek.