A crisp, cool, morning breeze rustled the thick stands of totora reeds lining the northern shoreline of Lake Titicaca. The small waves from our bow wake gently rocked the thick clumps of grasses as we motored into open water along a narrow, winding channel through the reed bed.

About 30 minutes into our adventure, we met three Uros women in a small wooden boat laden with colorful woven bags full of provisions. They smiled and waved to us, their black, plaited, waist-length hair streaming out from under traditional felt fedoras, the soft morning sunlight highlighting their tanned, weathered faces.

I marveled at the woman in the center rowing the boat. At 12,500 feet above sea level, just changing seats to get a better picture sent my heart racing, so I could only imagine what rowing a boat would do. But here was this mature woman sporting a big smile, rowing effortlessly out into the lake.

Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world and home to a unique community of Uros, pre-Incan Indians who live on 42 floating islands about three miles out into the lake. The Uros construct their floating islands by lashing bundles of dried totora reeds together, then anchoring them to the lakebed with long, wooden poles.

An hour after leaving the dock in Puno, we pulled up to one of the floating islands to visit an Uros family. Two elderly women with infectious smiles helped us from the boat and introduced the large family. The reed surface was firmer than I expected, but it still felt like walking on a giant waterbed. A couple of times during our visit, the wake from a passing motorboat rocked the island slightly, causing me to stagger around a bit, which in turn produced lots of snickers from the children.

The Uros use the reeds to build just about everything they need, including their homes, boats and even their beds. Sadly, wooden rowboats have replaced most of the traditional reed boats, or balsa, but the families that accept visitors usually keep a small one around for curious tourists such as myself. After paddling a balsa for 10 minutes and getting nowhere in a hurry, it was easy to see why wooden rowboats were so popular.

During our morning visit, the family treated us to freshly roasted corn and some local songs. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with these endearing people, and I think the children got a big kick out of seeing me stagger around. The Uros are some of the warmest and most sincere people you will meet in South America. They subsist mainly on farming and selling their exquisite handwoven textiles to tourists. I returned their hospitality by purchasing a beautiful handknitted chullo (earflap ski hat) made of vicuña for $5.

When most visitors think of Peru, they think of Machu Picchu, but the country boasts a diverse array of other interesting ancient historical sites and cultural experiences. And despite being three times larger than California, Peru’s efficient highway, rail and air systems make it surprisingly easy and affordable to get around the country.

My Peru adventure started in Lima, the country’s sprawling capital of almost 9 million people and home to a treasure trove of historical attractions. The Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the coastal city on Jan. 18, 1535, during the Catholic Feast of the Epiphany (when the three wise men or kings visited the newborn Christ in Bethlehem). Of course, Pizarro didn’t bring any gifts when he landed on the coast, but he sure took lots of gold and silver back to Spain.

The busy capital still exudes a colonial vice-regal ambience and is the perfect starting point for exploring Peru’s cultural and geographic wonders. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991, Lima’s historic district boasts four centuries of living history. Surrounding the spacious cobblestone Plaza de Armas with its 17th-century bronze fountain, you’ll find one of the best collections of Baroque cathedrals and gracious Spanish manors in South America.

A couple of miles from Plaza de Armas, in the leafy suburb around Plaza Bolívar, is the must-see National Museum of the Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru with its superb collection of more than 100,000 artifacts, textiles and pottery spanning Peru’s entire history of human occupation. It’s arguably one of South America’s most interesting museums and a wonderful preamble for visits to Peru’s many historic sites.

One of these sites, the Huaca Pucllana complex, sits in the middle of Lima’s modern, upscale Miraflores neighborhood. The three-story clay and adobe pyramid was an administrative and ceremonial pre-Incan center for centuries, from about A.D. 200 to 700. It epitomizes Peru’s desire to maintain its diversified past within its cities.

From Lima, I visited Puno and Lake Titicaca, then traveled north by motor coach to Cuzco, crossing over the 14,225-foot Feliz Viaje Pass high in the Andes. Along the way, I stopped at the Sillustani chullpas, a group of ancient Incan burial towers on the hills above Lake Umayo, a reed-filled lake that is home to more than 60 species of high-altitude water birds, including the majestic Andean flamingo.

I spent three days in Cuzco adjusting to the 10,800-foot altitude and exploring the city the Spanish called La Ciudad Imperial, the Imperial City. The city dates back to an ancient pre-Incan civilization around 2000 B.C.; it became the sacred capital of the Inca Empire around A.D. 1200. Most historians consider Cuzco to be the oldest continuously used settlement site in South America.

Sadly, by the mid-1500s the Spanish had demolished most of the ancient city, using the original stone blocks to build their palaces, cathedrals and citadels. However, they did incorporate pieces of the ancient temple and city walls into their new buildings. Some of these walls are still visible in the buildings facing the main square. UNESCO declared Cuzco a World Heritage site in 1983.

One of Cuzco’s more impressive intact Incan sites straddles the northeastern ridge above the city. The walled fortress of Sacsayhuamán was of little use to the Spanish after defeating the Inca Empire, so they mostly left it alone. They did demolish some smaller interior structures to use for building material but spared the main walls. Archaeologists surmise that the immense size of some of the wall blocks (between 200 and 300 tons) dissuaded the Spanish from using them. The sunrise vista of the Cuzco valley from the fortress walls was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Despite its rich Incan and colonial history, Cuzco played the role of gateway city for Peru’s top attraction, Machu Picchu. Since American archaeologist Hiram Bingham discovered the Incan citadel high in the Andes in 1911, Cuzco has welcomed millions of Machu Picchu-bound visitors.

I hopped the train in Cuzco for the four-hour ride to Aguas Calientes, a small frontier town on the banks of the Urubamba River at the base of Machu Picchu. You can take the early train to Aguas Calientes, explore the ruins for a few hours and return to Cuzco in the late afternoon; but I recommend staying a few days in Aguas Calientes to properly explore the ruins and do some hiking along the world-famous Inca Trail.

Tourist buses depart the town’s train station every 30 minutes or so for the bumpy five-mile ride up the steep, twisty dirt road to the park entrance. From there I hiked the steep half-mile up to the ruins. Needless to say, the thin air at 8,000 feet made it feel more like a two-mile hike. But the moment I cleared the last bend in the trail and saw the magnificent ruins, all memory of the muscle-burning climb quickly vanished.

What struck me the most was the sheer impossibility of building this grand city in such a precipitous location. And the impossibilities mounted as I examined the finer details of the classic Incan architectural style, known as ashlar. How they could assemble such enormous stone blocks and fit them together so seamlessly that there isn’t even space to slip a knife blade between them still baffles scholars.

Machu Picchu is an immense site, so plan on spending an entire day to properly explore the ruins (most hotels can provide a bag lunch). The decision to stay three days paid off because it rained the first day, leaving one day to explore the ruins and one day for some spectacular Andean hiking.

I barely scratched the surface on my 10-day tour of Peru, but Lake Titicaca and Machu Picchu proved to be the perfect bookends for an adventure-packed trip in what is arguably South America’s most historically significant and culturally diverse country.

Info to Go

Flights arrive daily from major U.S. gateways into Jorge Chávez Lima-Callao International Airport (LIM). Condor Travel (www.condortravel.com) offers a wide range of custom land, air and water adventures such as hiking, river rafting and Amazon jungle cruising. Peruvian-owned hotel group Casa Andina (www.casa-andina.com) operates upscale properties in convenient locations throughout the country. For more information, visit www.peru.travel/en or www.visitperu.com.