Situé with 3810 meters of altitude,
the lake Titicaca holds the title of the most navigable lake
of the world, of many islands and villages offer to the visitor
the occasion to discover the life, the habits of the Amerindian
people and the archaeological richnesses of civilizations
précolombiennes.
Huatajata, with 3824 meters of altitude, is
a small village at the edge of the lake, since which you can
rent boats to visit some islands of the lake, such as the
very known island of Suriki for its boats of will totora (plant
of the family of the reeds pushing at the edges of water).
You will be able to admire the technique of their manufacture
there.
On the other islands of the area:Pariti, Taqueriri and Kalahuta,
you will discover vestiges of the old cultures Tiwanaku, Aymara
and Quechua.
In Pariti, you will have the occasion to observe
the life of the inhabitants of the lake, and to even divide
a little their daily newspaper if you decide to camp on the
island.
Copacabana is a pleasant city which is drawn up in a bay,
framed by two hills. Copacabana is especially known for the
miraculous Virgin that it shelters in her cathedral, that
one celebrates with enthusiasm on August 5. It is Virgen de
Copacabana, sponsors of Bolivia. Already for the INCA period,
Copacabana was a sanctuary devoted to the god Sun and the
founders of the INCA Empire.
The peninsula of Copacabana was, of the time of old civilizations,
an agricultural center, and one can observe still there the
systems of platforms used by Incas.
The cathedral is one of the monuments baroques best preserved
of Bolivia, is there Virgen de Copacabana.
The Martyrdom is one of the mountains which frame Copacabana,
at the top one has a splendid point of view on the lake and
the city.
Important island of Titikaka, Isla del Sol
(island of the Sun) shelters interesting architectural works
of the period précolombienne. It is here that, according
to the oral tradition, the god Sun had taken refuge at the
time of the "Chamaj Pasha", the time of the flood
and the darkness. His/her children, Manko Kapak and Mama Okllo,
began here their tour which led them later to found Cuzco.
Several archeological sites are on this island:
Yumani, where an impressive scale of the INCA time, améne
with a fountain with three sources of water which symbolize
the three laws incas: not to fly, not to lie, not to be lazy.
Pilkokaina is an old de luxe hotel of two stages of which
only the first is still intact.
Trekking Copacabana-Yampupata is an excursion
which one makes with an aim of remaining to sleep on the island
of the Sun and to appreciate the twilight and the paddle of
more crowned lakes of the ground.
Island of Koati is with seven kilometers of
the Sun island. Here one can visit the temples of Nustas (virgins
of the Sun), monuments incas among best preserved of Bolivia.
