Lake Titicaca

Legend has it the first Inca chief and his wife rose from the waters of Lake Titicaca, the world's largest high-altitude lake (about 15,000 feet above sea level, if I remember right).

The lake is also famous for (other than the cheap giggle it entices when you say it out loud) the floating islands built by the Uros Indians. They're made of reeds and support homes, churches, schools and on one island, a 7th Day Adventist Church.

We ventured out to the islands in the Bay of Puno, an archipelago of 45 tiny man-made reed islands.

Here's your favorite blogger posing with one island's mascot. Each little island contains several families. The men mostly fish, the women sell crap to tourists. Some homes boast solar panels for TVs and radios.






Meanwhile, back in Puno on the banks of Lake Titicaca, we took in the nightlife of the somewhat seedy downtown (at least compared to Cusco) and ran into this fellow in the middle -- Michael,

a shoe salesman from Colorado. Michael was somewhat like Waldo, he kept popping up. We first met him standing in line waiting for the bus to take us up to Machu Picchu, saw him again at Machu Picchu, again back in Cusco, on the train to Puno, and the LTR and I were sitting in this bar in Puno and in walks, Michael.




The other attraction in Puno, and docked off our hotel, is the Yavari, a British steamship built in the 1860s and carried in pieces by mule over six years from a port in Chile to Lake Titicaca.

It's been restored and will someday be returning to service as a charter boat.


You can learn more from the Yavari foundation.

Of course, after our tour as we were walking off the boat, who is walking up the dock but:

Michael