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 Lake
Titicaca is the world's highest lake navigable to large vessels. At
an altitude of about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) above sea level in
the Andes Mountains it forms a border between Peru to the west and
Bolivia to the east and covers some 3,200 square miles (8,300 square
kilometers) extending in a northwest to southeast direction for a
distance of 120 miles (190 kilometers). Lake Titicaca is 50 miles
(80 kilometers) across at its widest point. The Tiquina strait
separates the lake into two bodies of water.
 With snow-capped peaks along its far shores, this vast blue lake is
one of the Andes' most enchanting scenes. Travelers can visit Lake
Titicaca by taking either daytrips from both Puno on the Peruvian
side or for from La Paz on the
Bolivia side. By far the best way to see this
magnificent lake, travelers can take small cruise boats on overnight cruises between
both countries.
The area has much to offer as ruins on shore and on the islands
attest to the previous existence of one of the oldest civilizations
known in the Americas. The chief site is at Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, at
the southern end of the lake. On Titicaca Island ruins of a temple
mark the spot where, according to the tradition of the Incas
(Quechuan people of Peru who established an empire about 1100), the
legendary founders of the Inca dynasty were sent down to Earth by
the Sun. In Inca mythology, Manco Capac and Mama 0cllo, children of
the Sun, emerged from the depths of Lake Titicaca to found their
empire. Like famous naturalist Jacques Cousteau, today's visitors to
Titicaca will surely feel the same emotion that captivated the
symbolic universe of the ancient Peruvians.
An indigenous community of some 350 families continues to live
within the traditions of the 14th century, according to the
principles of Inca life. Here, without noting the passing of time,
the three golden rules of the Empire of the Sun have been kept: Ama
suwa, Ama quella, Ama llulla (do not steal, don't be idle, and do
not lie). The contact with other civilizations has not been able to
destroy the  profound identity of the Inca way. The Aymara people
living in the Titicaca Basin still practice their ancient methods of
agriculture on stepped terraces that predate Inca times. They grow
barley, quinoa (a type of pigweed that produces a small grain), and
the potato, which originated on the Altiplano. The highest
cultivated plot in the world was found near Titicaca - a field of
barley growing at a height of 15,420 feet (4,700 meters) above sea
level. At this height the grain never ripens, but the stalks furnish
forage for llamas and alpacas, the American relatives of the camel
that serve the Indians as beasts of burden and as a source of meat.
Remnants of ancient people, the Uru, still live on floating mats of
dried totora (a reed like papyrus that grows in dense brakes in the
marshy shallows). From the totora, the Uru and other lake dwellers
make their famed balsas - boats fashioned of bundles of dried reeds
lashed together that resemble the crescent-shaped papyrus craft
pictured on ancient Egyptian monuments. |
