EN Lake Titicaca

Trip Start Jun 29, 2011

Trip End Jun 29, 2012

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Flag of Bolivia Copacabana, Bolivia
Friday, September 30, 2011

After Machu Picchu we moved to Lake Titicaca which is partly in Peru and partly in Bolivia. It is covering 8400 square kilometres and is considered to be the world's largest high-altitude navigable lake sitting at 3808 meters above the sea. On the Peruvian side we visited famous floating islands. It was very touristy but interesting as well. The lake is as deep as 200 meters but where we visited the floating islands the water was deep 16 meters. To make floating islands they use about � meter of buoyant totora reeds that grow in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. On the top they put around 2 meters layer of totora and extra layer under houses. They use totora for everything (to make boats, houses and crafts but also to cook, to sleep on it…. etc.). There are around 50 floating islands and each has around 25 people living on them. We heard that it is not true and it is only done for tourist as an attraction. We must admit that it didn’t look like people are living there as everything was very simple and empty but it still was very interesting to see it :o)

Floating Isnland - how it is build

inside house

Next day we crossed the border to Bolivia to visit Lake Titicaca’s Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) but unfortunately Jakub was unwell (flu symptoms) for a week now so instead we went to a local hospital. The doctor told us that Jakub was dehydrated and gave him a drip and antibiotics. After 2 days of resting we decided to go the Isla del Sol. The boat left early in the morning and dropped us off in the north part of the island. We then visited some ruins and afterwards walked 11km with amazing views to the south part of the island where we were again collected by our boat and taken back to the port. Straight after that, we took a bus to Bolivia’s capital La Paz from where we are taking a bus to Uyuni which is very famous for its huge salt flats.

Isla del sol