Laguna San Nicolás y Talleres de Namora

The lake sits in open, largely treeless country, shallow at the edges with reed beds along the shoreline and dry ridges running down to the far side. It is used for fishing and for the reeds, which are cut and bound into the boats. The landscape here is a plainer kind of highland than the pine forest at Porcón or the rock at Cumbemayo, and the trip suits people who want to see the rural valley working rather than a monument.

Namora has a long-standing trade in stringed instruments, and the workshops are the reason this is a combined half-day rather than a stop at a lake. Buying directly from a maker is the most useful thing a visitor can do here.

Four to five hours including the drive, best May to October when the roads out are reliable.

A note on the limits of this entry: the Namora workshops and the reed-boat work are documented thinly in the sources this guide uses, and the detail here is deliberately general. Whether workshops are open to visitors on a given day, and whether the boats are being worked, are worth arranging in advance rather than assuming.