Anapia Island

Anapia is in the Wiñaymarka, the smaller southern basin of Titicaca near the Bolivian border, and it is about as far from the Puno tourist circuit as the Peruvian side of the lake goes. A few hundred people live there, farming and fishing, and a community association has run a small homestay programme since the 1990s - visitors stay with families, eat what the household eats, and go out by sailing boat to Yuspique, an uninhabited island in the group where vicuña were introduced and where the community holds a communal meal on the shore. Quechua and Aymara are both spoken in the archipelago. Access is from Punta Hermosa near Yunguyo rather than Puno, and boats run on a schedule tied to local needs rather than to visitors, so trips must be arranged in advance through the association.

The main sights

• The homestays - a small community programme with a few hundred residents.
• Yuspique - the uninhabited island with introduced vicuña, reached by sailing boat.
• The Wiñaymarka - the southern basin of Titicaca, away from the tourist routes.
• The languages - Quechua and Aymara both in use across the archipelago.

When to go

April to November. Two days minimum given the travel. Everything must be arranged in advance - boats run to local schedules, not visitor ones.

Good to know

Genuinely remote and hard to reach; there is no turning up. Accommodation is very basic with no hot water and cold nights. Little or no English. Boats are small and open, and crossings are cancelled in bad weather.

Nearby

Yunguyo and the Bolivian border are on the mainland; Pomata is north along the shore.

Key facts