Caracoto Community is toward Sillustani, which is at the end of a paved road leading off of the main road that goes between Juliaca and Puno about 34 Km North of the City of Puno, on the shore of beautiful Umayo Lagoon. The junction is roughly half way between the two cities and then you drive another 15 minutes to the end of the road and the site itself. On the way to Sillustani, we drove for about 10 minutes and stopped to visit the local indigenous community of Caracoto and we were guests in the home of a local woman and her son. It is here that we learned about chuño. The extremes of temperature in the high Andes make it possible to freeze-dry and preserve potatoes naturally. The cold air at night freezes the moisture from the potato, while the sun during the day melts and evaporates it. After a week of lying outdoors, the potatoes are pounded. The result is chuño— small, rock-hard pieces of potato that can be stored for years. If the normal black or dark potato is not washed to remove the color it is Black Chuño. If washed it is White Chuño. We visited this Home on April 21, at about 3:30 PM.

Since this trip is near Juliaca City, & Puno Peru; you have two choices of airports when planning to make the trip. One choice is Cusco, the other is Juliaca. The Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (IATA: CUZ, ICAO: SPZO) is located in the city of Cusco, a city in southeastern Peru. Cusco, a principal tourist attraction in Latin America, receives various domestic flights as well as some international flights. Or you can fly into the Inca Manco Cápac International Airport (IATA: JUL, ICAO: SPJL), known as Aeropuerto Internacional Inca Manco Cápac in Spanish, located in the city of Juliaca, thirty minutes from the city of Puno at Titicaca Lake. It is run by CORPAC S.A. (Corporación Peruana de Aeropuertos y Aviación Comercial S.A.), a government-run organization that oversees the management of Peruvian airports. Its runway is the longest in Latin America. While it is called International; it does not serve international flights! You can fly into Peru to the international airports located at Lima, Arequipa and Cusco. Then you can be flown into the Inca Manco Cápac International Airport. Then, you could stay at Juliaca or you can be transported from the airport of Juliaca, to the town of Puno in a taxi; with an average cost of about US $20; or in a minibuse, with an average cost of about US $5 per person. The leading hotels in Puno have transportation back to the airport. There are several Guided Tour Agencies offering standard city and archaeological tours of the areas of both Cusco, Puno, and Juliaca. The Caracoto Community is close to Juliaca so either Puno or Juliaca would be your best place to have a hotel. We found that when touring Peru, Magical Cusco Tours gave us the best service of all. They even arranged very personal tours based upon our ages and experience. They were there for us whenever we needed them. Click on any of their links on our pages and they will give you a 4% discount for taking their package tours. Mention delange.org. Merchant Code Inka2010 for your discount! We suggest letting Ana Maria handle your tour. Note: The 4% discount applies to package tours only! Discount does not apply to hotel bookings, domestic or international tickets, meals or any other service booked as a single activity. Magical Cusco Tours also has a culinary tour that you may enjoy.Click Here For: Taste Of Peru.com their culinary tour page. We also have placed links to Priceline.Com on this page, as they also can provide good service.