After having survived the horrifying and risky trip of the world most dangerous road, the journey continued onward to the ancient lake of Titicaca. So why is this lake so famous? Depending where you look the ratings as the world’s highest lake (Lonely Planet), the highest commercially navigable lake in the world (wikipedia), the highest of the world’s large lakes (UNESCO), is up for discussion and interpretation. The following are facts though, it is one of the twenty ancient lakes in the world counting more than three million years of age and occupies pitifully 8,300 sq. km2, 1,300 sq. km2 more than Zealand, Denmark. Lake Titicaca sits 3,810 m above sea level and is divided, more or less in the middle, by Bolivia and Peru.
We spend one day on the famous Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) where the first Inka (Inka means king), Manco Capac, is said to have emerged from a crag in a large sandstone outcrop. Capac is the son of the Inti, the Andean deity identified as the sun. The ancient people of the lake province was without lights for many days and finally they saw the sun emerge from the crag. They believed it was the sun`s dwelling place and hence forth the island bore its name.
It all sounds beautiful and very adventurous but the truth was that I was very sick and did not see much more than my bed. In the morning, after sleeping 11 hours, i was gifted with the amazing sight of the sunrise from my window. From that moment I was happy to have agreed to take the 2 hour boat ride and the 30 minutes lung crunching climb to the hostel, both with some kind of weird Andean fever and the shakes that came with it. If I had the choice I would do it again.
We left that next morning for Cusco and the forgotten city of Machu Picchu.
