The story
Festivity of the Virgen de la Candelaria Puno in Puno
The Festivity of the Virgen de la Candelaria fills Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, with two weeks of Andean dance and music every February. Recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014, it centers on the diablada, a masked devil dance blending Catholic devotion with pre-Columbian Andean belief, and underlies Puno's title as Peru's folklore capital.
On the high plateau around Lake Titicaca, where Quechua and Aymara communities have lived for centuries at an elevation that leaves most visitors short of breath, the city of Puno hosts what has grown into Peru's largest folkloric celebration.