Peru, South America
Travel
Smugglers, $67 Llama Lure Tourists to Adventurous Lake Titicaca
By Melissa Burdick Harmon
Lake Titicaca is famous around the world as being the world’s highest navigable lake and has become one of Peru’s main tourist destinations
While shopping 12,500 feet above sea level at a market not far from Lake Titicaca, I discovered that I could buy a llama for about $67, a patty of cow dung for 60 cents and a cat for 30 cents. Odd livestock and droppings aren’t the big curiosity one encounters around here, though. The Uro people of Peru have lived atop the waters of Lake Titicaca since long before the start of the Incan civilization thousands of years ago. And that’s literally atop the lake. Locals build reed islands on which they construct reed houses and whence they travel via handsome reed boats. They fish, gather edible floating greens and catch or shoot birds for food. This is their way of life, although young people are starting to move to the shore and beyond. Maybe the youths are looking for stability. I found walking on the small, soggy reed islands challenging, especially with no barrier to keep you from slipping into icy water. Even though islanders regularly replace the top layer of reeds, children have been known to fall through when the reeds that form the island’s bottom have decayed. Thick eucalyptus trunks anchor the islands to the lake bottom....
As I looked out from the island, Lake Titicaca seemed to stretch on forever. The world’s highest navigable lake is a vast inland sea ranging all the way to Bolivia. To sail from Puno to the part of the Bolivian shore that is closest to the capital of La Paz is a journey of more than 100 miles (160 kilometers). The two countries’ border lies somewhere in the middle of the lake. That aquatic line makes Lake Titicaca a busy place at night, when smugglers cross in small boats, navigating by the stars and carrying bargain-priced Bolivian goods to sell in local markets in Peru....