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Amantaní is an island on the Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian side of Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It sits 3,812 m above sea level making it one of the highest commercially navigable lakes in the world....
. According to a 1988 census
Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population....
, it has a population of 3,663 Quechua
Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
 speakers divided among about 800 families. The island is circular and about 9.28 km² in size. It has two mountain peaks, Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth), with ancient Inca
Inca Empire

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cuzco in modern-day Peru....
 and Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five hundred years....
 ruins on top of both.






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Intikawan Amantani
Amantaní is an island on the Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian side of Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It sits 3,812 m above sea level making it one of the highest commercially navigable lakes in the world....
. According to a 1988 census
Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population....
, it has a population of 3,663 Quechua
Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
 speakers divided among about 800 families. The island is circular and about 9.28 km² in size. It has two mountain peaks, Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth), with ancient Inca
Inca Empire

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cuzco in modern-day Peru....
 and Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five hundred years....
 ruins on top of both. The hillsides, are terraced
Terrace (agriculture)

In agriculture, a terrace is a leveled section of a hilly cultivated area, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid surface runoff of irrigation water....
 mostly worked by hand and planted with wheat
Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
, quinoa
Quinoa

Quinoa is a species of goosefoot grown as a agriculture primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal as it is not a Poaceae....
, potato
Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
es, and other vegetables. Livestock
Livestock

Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fibre, or for its labour....
, including alpaca
Alpaca

The Alpaca is a Domestication species of South American camelid. It resembles a small llama in superficial appearance.Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of Ecuador, southern Peru, northern Bolivia, and northern Chile at an altitude of to meters above sea-level, throughout the year....
s, also graze the slopes.

The temples at the top of the peaks are generally closed during the year. Entrance is permitted on January 20, the annual feast day, at which time the island's population divides in two, with each group gathering at its respective temple. A race is then held from each peak to a point somewhere between the two, and a representative of each group is chosen to run. According to tradition, a victory for Pachamama portends a bountiful harvest
Harvest

In agriculture, the harvest is the process of gathering mature crop from the field s. Reaping is the cutting of grain or Pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper....
 in the year to come.

Similar to the Taquileños, the inhabitants of Amantaní are also known for their textile
Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
s, as well as their ceramics
Ceramics (art)

Ceramics is the art and science of making objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials by the action of heat. In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean tableware, Work of art and tiles made from clay and other ceramic materials by the process of pottery, so excluding glass and also mosaic, normally made from glass tesserae....
. Most of the inhabitants live in houses of adobe
Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun....
. There is a small health clinic and school on Amantaní, and, while there are no hotels, some families offer meals and overnight lodging to tourists
Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from...
. In return, guests are expected to bring food (such as rice or sugar) as a gift. The island has no cars and is powered for only a few hours a day by a generator.

Amantaní is known as the "Island of the Kantuta
Cantuta

The Cantuta is a flowering plant found in the high valleys of the yungas. It is the national flower of Peru and one of two national flowers of Bolivia, the other being the Patuj?....
", after the national flower
National emblem

A national emblem national symbols represents a nation. Most national emblems originate in the natural world, such as animals or birds, but another object may serve....
 of Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
 and Bolivia
Bolivia

The Republic of Bolivia , named after Sim?n Bol?var, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west....
, which grows plentifully on the island.