Lake Titicaca

Lago Titicaca is famously known as the largest lake in South America, and the highest navigable lake in the world...this is not necessarily true though, but it does attract a lot of tourists. The lake is really high at 3,820 meters, and it is 270km long by 97km wide. We found the area a lot different than we expected. It was really dry with little vegatation. We really noticed a difference in the people once we got to Copacabana. They were more eager to try to overcharge the gringo, and see how much they could get us to pay. We have noticed this attitude is prevelant in Peru so far. It is quite annoying! Here is a traditional woman in Bolivia called a "Chocla" They usually demand money for their picture but I took this one through a bus window.

This is Copacabana which is on Lake Titicaca. This town is only about 10 km from the border of Peru. This is the spot to take a boat to the Island of the Sun. This picture is from the top of a hill overlooking the city.

Lake Titicaca.

Sunset on the lake.

More of the sunset, it was just so pretty I couldn't stop taking pictures. I think I have bout 30 pictures of the sunset alone.

After the sun went down it made this beautiful rays of light that reached into the sky.

On top of the hill that I was taking pictures from there was a cemetery. While I was watching the Sun set the locals started lighting candles at the headstones.

Here are the rays of the setting Sun.

The moon over Copacabana.

This is the Island of the Sun. Everyone we'd talked to said that the Island was "magnificent" and it shouldn't be missed. The Inca believe the island is the birthplace of the Inca Sun God and that all life cames from the Sun. There are supposed to be all sorts of ruins and beautiful things on the island.

This is the ONLY real ruin on the island, they call it the maze. I think it was basically storage rooms for grain and foods.

A beautiful view of the mountains in the distance. The tallest mountain in this range is about 6500 meters.

The "Inca Trail" on the island, but they call EVERYTHING near Peru "The Inca Trail".

A wall I'm not sure if its newer or older. I suspect it was built within the last 50 years.

Some pretty mineral deposits in the hills of the Island of the Sun.

All along the island people had "check" points trying to charge tourists to pass. There were about 6 check points all charging between 5 to 10 Bolivianos. They all insisted the money went towards keeping the island clean, keeping the trail up, maintence, and the people. Well I did not pay any of them. I walked past them because I knew it was a crock. I'm glad I didn't pay this since this is how they deal with their sewage and trash. The hole is for sewage and you can see the burn pile for the trash. The lake is literally 2 feet from this sewage hole. There were burn piles for trash all across the island. Plus their was no trail maintence and absolutly NO signs ANYWHERE. Plus the ruins on the island SUCKED.

A picture of me leaving the island.

After Copacabana we went to Puno, Peru. We visited the floating islands of the Uros. These people built islands of tortora reeds to escape being slaughterd by the Inca and the Collas. This is one of their elaborate reed boats.

Here are the traditional women waiting to greet us as we arrive on one of the islands.

This is a water fowl they use much like a chicken. These birds were pretty tame since they live among the people.

The birds had such big feet in order to walk over the marshes and reeds.

This is a not to scale model of how the islands are built. They use a huge block of decaying reed matter more than a meter thick as the floating base for the island. Then they put another meter of new reeds on top.

This is one of their reed houses. Everything on the island is made from reeds! Houses, Boats, trinkets, tables, their food, and chairs.

The tour guide made some of the local girls sing us some songs such as; "Row Row Row your boat" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".