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The origin of its name is not clear, local writings assign it as originating in a legend in which a princess named Maicusa would have been rescued and protected in its places during a war persecution, it is not clear, however, the '' kingdom ´´ to which it would belong and there is no record of the contending region; This legend makes some sense if the hypothesis that is recorded in history is verified that the indigenous high Peruvian Tito Cusi, who communicated about the Callahuayas, made up a population and their own territory with autonomous government, in their ´´history of the kingdoms of Peru ´´, he claims to have contacted the last descendant (in 1630) of the Coarete family, kings of the Callahuayas, he does not give more data.



Another of the possible origins of the name of Macusani is found in a record of 1781, attributed to Pedro Sainz, a manuscript found in the National Library of Bolivia, entitled Registry of the Kingdoms of the Viceroyalty of La Plata, in the paragraph corresponding to the colonial province Carabaya of the viceroyalty of La Plata (Buenos Aires), in it, the author calls one of its component towns: Ataucusani (I put a burden on myself); Even though this version is foreign, the virtue of this assertion is its etymological meaning, the name must have been an interpretation made in Azángaro's Quechua (for the first ´´u´´ in the construction of this name); it would have greater value for analysis, if it were not for the amount of data that comes from the 16th century, in which this little town is already named as Macusani and how little rational the word is to be a toponymy.



Finally, ´´ani´´ and ´´sani´´ are suffixes of abundance or predominant presence, so Macu is the word in truth incognito, therefore, the most plausible etymology must be sought among the products in which this historically stands out. town, those are the multiple varieties of potatoes and alpacas. Probably some archaic name of potato, of plants with some economic or ancient medical interest or variety of alpaca (less probable), of endemic predominance in this place, has originated the name.







Macusani, is the gateway to the Bahuaja Soneme National Park and the Puente Inambari area.



Macusani is the capita, from the province of Carabaya. It is also considered the “Alpaquera Capital of the World”. Macusani is located at 5300 meters above sea level! And it has a population of more than 11 thousand inhabitants.







Tourist attractions



Macusani cave paintings.



According to Rainer Hostnig, to get to the stone forest, you can access the Cusco-Puno paved road to Santa Rosa (200 km), from where you follow the affirmed road to Macusani (100 km) via Nuñoa. Another access route is by the asphalt road Puno-Cusco starting from the city of Puno to Pukará and from there by the affirmed highway via Azángaro and Asillo to Macusani. The towns of Tantamaco, Isivilla and Corani are reached by an unpaved road that starts at km 24 of the Macusani-San Gabán trunk.



These stone formations are very rich in rock art, which since the early 2000s are being studied by experts.

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