A Lake In The Sky

3 Oct 2002

The Altiplano is a high plateau that spans the Peruvian border and extends well into Bolivia. It is a windswept, dry, mostly tree-less landscape framed by ice-capped Andrean peaks. The local campesinos eke out a hard living from potatoes, quinoa and vicuña.

Altiplano

Puno, Peru (I think)

In the midst of the Altiplano is the massive Lake Titicaca, which at 3800m altitude claims to be the world's highest navigable lake. More remarkable is that a group of people, the Uru, live on the lake. Not on the shore, but floating on the water! They make nearly everything our of totora reeds: boats, houses, and the large floating platforms on which they live out their lives. This was the inspiration for the Kon-Tiki, which was built at Lake Titicaca then transported down to the Pacific for its journey to Easter Island.

Nowadays the Uru make most of their money from the tourist trade, and I made my contribution. The floating islands are remarkable and the sensation of walking on 'ground' that gives like a giant sponge is distinctive and unsettling. But the whole experience was so touristic as to feel somewhat superficial.

Uros Floating Islands

After crossing into Bolivia I did my second trek, something much less audacious than the first. I started at Copacabana, a charming, sleepy little town where I watched the local kids play indoor soccer, followed by "one of the best dinners of my life - stuffed trout." (Alas, I have no memory of this fine dining experience!) The next day I walked along the coast, past a shrine to the Virgin Mary, and then paid a grumpy old extortionist to row me across to Isla Del Sol (Island of the Sun).

Isla de la Luna in Lake Titicaca

Isla del Sol

Ruins on Isla del Sol (maybe Isla de la Luna?)

I spent the rest of the day and the next walking the spine of the island, taking in the ruins and the scenery. Incan mythology holds that the sun and the moon were born in Lake Titicaca, and temples to each were built on the respective islands. The land is steep, terraced and barren, pushing me up into an expansive sky while the deep cobalt lake spread out beneath. On the horizon the Andes occasionally showed their majesty by peeking through the clouds.