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.

Caracoto Community Cancha (house compound), Note The Toritos (Good Fortune Bulls).

Typical Peruvian Home	Grinding Quinoa Flower
Household Stove	Household Stove
Loom	Loom
Llamas & Alpacas	Llama
Guinea Pig House	Guinea Pigs
Native Potato Variety	Native Potato Variety
Native Potato Variety	Native Potato Variety
Black chuño Natural Freeze Dried Potato	White chuño Natural Freeze Dried Potato
	Barley
Quinoa
Cheese Cover	Cheese