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The highest navigable lake in the world

11 votes

Lake Titicaca is 170km long, 60km wide and over 450m deep, with 55% in Peru and 45% in Bolivia. It is 3830m above sea level with crystal clear water and an abundance of fish

The day started with quite a shock, I woke to half inch of snow. They dont get snow until mid august to early september and The Peruvian said it was special for special islands, we were all just freezing our bits off. Lake Titicaca has a number of islands in it including Taquile island and about 48 floating reed islands. The islanders are very independant and have there own cultures that they are proud of.

Favourite spots:

The islands of the Uros people built there islands from the reed that grow around the shore, there houses and boats are also built using the reeds and they cook and eat the soft fleshy parts. The island that I visited was called Pachamama (mother earth) and the islanders sing and dance on your departure.

What's really great:

We were taken from one island to the next on one of there reed boats, the boat was comfortable and stable in the water and was piloted by one of the women

Sights:

Taquile island is one of the solid islands on Lake Titicaca. the islandisvery traquill and the women spin wool and the men knit hats from the wool. The hats that the men knit are very important to them, single men wear white hats and the married men wear multicoloured hat that have designs on them that denote there social standing within the community.

Other recommendations:

The islanders of Taquile have a cooperative restaurant that benafits the whole community, helping with schooling and social buildings. The restaurant serves up localy caught fresh trout with all the trimmings, very tastey. Unfortunately the boat trip back to Puno was very choppy and im not a very good sailor, bon appatite fish.

Published on Friday June 13th, 2008 by fiftynotes

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