The legend of a lake

The legend of a lake

Puno, Peru
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Among straw huts on a floating village on Lake Titicaca, Reuters photographer Enrique Castro-Mendivil captured the re-enactment of the legend of Manco Capac, the mythical founder of the Inca dynasty, and Inca goddess of fertility Mama Ocllo.

Legend has it the pair emerged from the lake carrying a golden staff, instructed by the ancient Incan sun god Inti to create a temple in the spot where it sank into the earth.

. PUNO, Peru. REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

The Uros islands are a group of 70 man-made totora reed islands floating on the lake, which according to Peru's tourism board iPeru is the world's highest navigable lake at over 4,000 meters above sea level.

The Uros people fish and hunt, but tourism is their main source of livelihood, and the actors involved in the re-enactment were locals.

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An Andean woman steps out of her house made of straw.
. PUNO, Peru. REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

An Andean woman steps out of her house made of straw.

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