TRAVEL AND TOURS

An inexpugnable mantel of fog wraps up the vault of the sky in this morning of fine rain drops, uncertain clarity of shades and blurred images. Indications of beauty are shown off in the unconcluded lines of the horizon; suddenly, the curtain of fog is ripped by the phantasmagoric silhouette of a fragile craft, obstinate in crossing the legendary waters of a lake willing to be a sea.

The sighs of the wind shiver, slap and fatten the sails of the solitary craft, headed by a man of elusive eyes and prominent cheekbones that knows the whims of the Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world (3,810 m.a.s.l.) and the bigger in extension in South America, with an area of 8,300 square kilometers.

The breakable silhouette disappears while in the fog. The fog covers the blued immensity of the Titicaca, the cradle of the biggest empire in Pre Columbian America. From its calm waters, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo arose to found the Incan Empire in the heights of Cuzco, following an order given by their father, the Sun.

Source of life, myths and legends, the lake is in the highlands of Bolivia and Peru where it is a natural border between both countries. In the Bolivian area, the islands of El Sol, Suriki and Kalahuta, are rural but fascinating places, in which the remains of the old Andean cultures can still be seen.

But the islands of rafts weavers and expert fishermen are not the only attraction. In the lake proximities is located the rural town of Copacabana (department of La Paz), home of the miraculous Virgen Morena. The image -venerated by everybody in the highlands- was carved by a descendant of the Incas.

Finally, the father Sun becomes present and completes his duty of offering his heat to these lands of the Andes and the fog disappears. The sun shines in the transparent sky.