Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It sits 3,811 m above sea level, making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. By volume of water, it is also the largest lake in South America.

Few facts about Titicaca:

• 3811 m above sea level
• 8,372 km² - surface area (for comparison: Slovenia has the area of 20,273 km²)
• 190km max length
• 80km max width

Titicaca Lake and Bolivian mountains in the back

Tour at Titicaca is definitely an unforgettable experience for any visitor. When visiting Lake Titicaca, the town of Puno is the bestplace to stay, on the Peruvian side of the lake.The town of Puno is an interesting place to visit as it is the capital offolklore of Peru. It also has a beautiful old cathedral, and it is close to many attractions of Peru like the Macchu Picchu or the town of Cusco.

Titicaca lake and the town of Puno in the back

Titicaca Lake at the Peru – Bolivia border at Desaguadero

Lake Titicaca is a sacred place for the Inca civilization, as the Incanmythology says that the first Inca king, Manco Capac, was born here. According to the Incan mythology, this is the place where the world was created from, when the god Viracocha came out of the lake and created the sun, the stars and the first people. You will have many places to discover on the shore of Lake Titicaca, as well as on the many islands that exist on the lake.

Uros Islands

Titicaca is notable for a population of people who live on the Uros, a group of 44 or so artificial islands made of floating reeds (totora, a reed that abounds in the shallows of the lake). These islands have become a major tourist attraction for Peru, drawing excursions from the lakeside city of Puno. Their original purpose was defensive, and they could be moved if a threat arose. Many of the islands contain watchtowers largely constructed of reeds.

The larger islands house about ten families, while smaller ones, only about thirty meters wide, house only two or three.

The islets are made of totora reeds, which grow in the lake. The dense roots that the plants develop and interweave form a natural layer called Khili (about one to two meters thick) that support the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top constantly, about every three months; this is what it makes exciting for tourists when walking on the island. This is especially important in the rainy season when the reeds rot much faster. The islands last about thirty years.

There is also a floating school for local children on the islands. For further education children have to go to Puno to local schools.

children on the way to school

Machu Picchu stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting. It was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height. Its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin with its rich diversity of flora and fauna.  It is one of the most important archaeological sites in South America, one of the most visited tourist attractions in all of Latin America and the most visited tourist attraction in Peru.

Machu Picchu is one of the most important cultural sites in Latin America; the stonework of the site remains as one of the world’s great examples of the use of a natural raw material to provide outstanding architecture which is totally appropriate to the surroundings. The surrounding valleys have been cultivated continuously for well over 1,000 years, providing one of the world’s greatest examples of a productive man-land relationship; the people living around Machu Picchu continue a way of life which closely resembles that of their Inca ancestors, being based on potatoes, maize and llamas.

Set on the vertiginous site of a granite mountain sculpted by erosion and dominating a meander in the Rio Urubamba, Machu Picchu is a world renowned archaeological site. The construction of this amazing city, set out according to a very rigorous plan, comprises one of the most spectacular creations of the Inca Empire. It appears to date from the period of the two great Incas, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438-71) and Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1472-93). The function of this city situated at least 100 km from the capital, Cuzco, has not been formulated which are not verifiable given the absence of written documentation and sufficiently explicit material evidence.

The Incas started building the “estate” around AD 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally looked like. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored. The restoration work continues to this day.

Temple of the Sun

Since the site was never known to the Spanish during their conquest, it is highly significant as a relatively intact cultural site. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

The city sits in a saddle between the two mountains Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu, with a commanding view down two valleys and a nearly impassable mountain at its back. It has a water supply from springs that cannot be blocked easily, and enough land to grow food for about four times as many people as ever lived there. The hillsides leading to it have been terraced, not only to provide more farmland to grow crops, but to steepen the slopes which invaders would have to ascend.

If you want to see Machu Picchu from above you have to hike to Huayna Picchu. The hike is extremely steep and it tests your lungs. The positive thing is that the altitude is not such a problem because Machu Picchu is 2430m above sea level and Huayna Picchu is few hundred meters higher. But the other disadvantage is that the temperatures are higher and that is also the case with humidity. Once you are on the top you forget all the efforts and enjoy the view.

View of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu

In January 2010, heavy rain caused flooding which buried or washed away roads and railways leading to Machu Picchu, trapping more than 2,000 local people and more than 2,000 tourists, who were taken out by airlift. Machu Picchu was closed temporarily, but it reopened on 1 April 2010. I visited Machu Picchu in August 2010. Visit my Peru subpage and find out more.

Cusco, often spelled Cuzco is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cusco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago. Located on the eastern end of the Knot of Cusco, its altitude is around 3,400 m. Cusco was the site of the historic capital of the Inca Empire and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. It is a major tourist destination and receives almost 1.5 million visitors a year. It is designated as the Historical Capital of Peru by the Constitution of Peru.

Landing in Cusco is a great experience. City is located at the altitude of around 3,400 m so the landing strip has to be substantially longer as the air does not provide as much lift and the airplanes are landing with higher speeds.

Cusco as seen from the surrounding hills and the main square “Plaza de Armas”

Sacsayhuamán (also known as Saksaq Waman, Sacsahuaman or Saxahuaman) is a walled complex on the northern outskirts of the city of Cusco, the former capital of the Inca empire. The complex is as many other Inca constructions made of large polished dry-stone walls, each boulder carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The site, at an altitude of 3,701 m, was added as part of the city of Cusco to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.

Main square “Plaza de Armas” in Cusco.

Salar Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometres. It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, and is elevated 3,656 meters above the mean sea level. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The salt crust is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world’s lithium reserves. The large area, clear skies and exceptional surface flatness make the Salar an ideal object for calibrating the altimeters of the Earth observation satellites. The Salar serves as the major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano and is a major breeding ground for several species of pink flamingos.

I arrived in the town of Uyuni early in the morning with a night bus from La Paz. I must warn everyone who will travel like this that you have to dress warm, it is very cold on the bus during the night. The town was just waking up and we found a nice place to have breakfast and to get a nice warm coca tea. It was a while when the Land Cruisers were prepared and the guides were ready to go. This was a beginning of a 3 day journey over a large area of Bolivian Altiplano, through Salar Uyuni, beautiful acid lakes, geysers, hot springs and finally crossing the border with Chile and descending to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Our firs stop was the Train cemetery and Salt Hotel. The hotel got the name after the material it was build of and yes it is entirely build of salt blocks from the salt flat. Then we drove for about 2-3 hours to reach the famous Incahuasi Island on which you can find the gigantic cactuses. The day was slowly coming to an end, so it was time to continue to the village where we would spend the night. It was a lovely village and locals cooked us a lovely meal. The next day it was time to continue south on Altiplano and to discover the beautiful landscapes and nature of these remote places. On the map below is the track of this day, covering the distance from Uyuni to Incahuasi Island and to the village where we spent the night. More on altiplano and the acid lakes some other time.

Have you seen the post about the World’s most dangerous road? The Death Road.

Last year when I visited Bolivia I wanted to go downhill with a bike on the “World’s most Dangerous Road” also know as North Yungas Road, Grove’s Road, Coroico Road, Camino de las Yungas, El Camino de la Muerte, Road of Death or Death Road. I have done it and I am still here. It was a great experience and the scenery is just amazing. I am used to the roads here in alps and the cliffs but mostly there is some safety features on the road, that is not the case in Bolivia. The only thing that might save you if you drive over the cliff are the trees and the jungle that might soften the fall, but the walls are so steep that probably you would fall several hundred meters down. Let me tell you a few facts about the road.

The Road of Death is a 69-kilometre long road leading from La Paz to Coroico, 56 kilometres northeast of La Paz in the Yungas region of Bolivia. It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank christened it as the “world’s most dangerous road”. One estimate is that 200 to 300 travellers were killed yearly along the road. The road includes crosses marking many of the spots where vehicles have fallen.

No room for error

The road was built in the 1930s during the Chaco War by Paraguayan prisoners. It is one of the few routes that connects the Amazon rainforest region of northern Bolivia, or Yungas, to its capital city. Upon leaving La Paz, the road first ascends to around 4,650 meters at La Cumbre Pass, before descending to 1,200 meters at the town of Coroico, transiting quickly from cool Altiplano terrain to rainforest as it winds through very steep hillsides and atop cliffs.

Because of the extreme dropoffs of at least 600 meters , single-lane width – most of the road no wider than 3.2 meters and lack of guard rails, the road is extremely dangerous. Further still, rain, fog and dust can reduce visibility. In many places the road surface is muddy, and can loosen rocks from the road.

One of the local road rules specifies that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outer edge of the road. This forces fast vehicles to stop so that passing can be negotiated safely. Also, vehicles drive on the left, as opposed to the right like the rest of Bolivia. This gives a left hand drive vehicle’s driver a better view over his outside wheel, making passing safer.

The danger of the road ironically made it a popular tourist destination. The road is popular amongst tourists since there is a 64-kilometre stretch of continuos downhill riding with only one short uphill section.

Since 2006 The North Yungas Road aka. The Death Road in not used anymore as a main road and is mainly used by the tourists who want to ride downhill. There is a new road which was modernized and includes 2-lane asphalt pavement, bridges, drainage, guardrails and many other elements which make it considerably safer than the original route. This new section of road bypasses the most dangerous section of the old road.

Driving down the Death Road was an experience I will never forget. Bellow you can find the map and gps data from the whole trip I made that day. We started in La Paz and head up to La Cumbre Pass and there we started our descent to Bolivian jungle and the town of Coroico. On our way back to La Paz we ascended with a car on the new part of the road which is clearly visible on the map below.

Start of the Bike tour at 4700m (Death Road)

Death Road, high in the Andes

Death Road from Above

Cliffs on the Death Road

Death Road of Bolivia

Top Gear on BBC also made a whole episode in Bolivia and it includes driving up the Death Road. You can watch the video on youtube (opens in a new window).

My photo from Bolivia is featured on Photoburst.net. Click here to see the photo.

Going on a Safari was a dream for me for a long time. This dream finally came true this year.

I can’t describe how amazing it is to see wild animals in their natural habitat. I remember all of those amazing shows on National Geographic and other channels, but this was soooo much better. It was phenomenal!

Scenes from the following movie were shot in Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Manyara and Tarangire national parks in Tanzania.

Remember to turn on the speakers, watch it in HD and please let me know what you think:) (leave a comment or hit tweet or like). Thanks!

You can also watch the movie on my video subpage. Click here.

A quick review of the year 2010 and some of my work.

I have finally completed my travel photography site for Philippines. You can check it out if you click on the menu above (Travel Photography) or with clicking on this link.

During my trip to South America I also visited Chile. I visited San Pedro de Atacama, El Tatio Geysers and Arica which is close to border with Peru.

Bolivia was my second stop on my South American trip. Pristine nature, interesting people, amazing landscapes and I could go on and on. I enjoyed Bolivia a lot and I wish to return someday.

Lake Titicaca

La Paz (the highest capital city in the world…from 3300-4100m)

Death Road

Isla de Pescadores (Island of the Fishermen) – Salar Uyuni

Altiplano

Surreal landscapes and Flamingos

Flamingos

Fox and a Bus (Bolivia/Chile border)

A few images from my trip to South America this summer. I have been to Peru, Bolivia and Chile. Stay tuned for more.

Cuzco, Peru

5000m+ mountains near Cuzco

Quinoa growing high in Andes (4000m)

Salt ponds of Maras

Macchu Picchu

Floating Uros islands

Lady and Lama in Colca Valley

Lamas

I was in Holland this June and probably had the best possible weather you can have. Here are a few shots from Scheveningen, Delft and Amsterdam.

Miniature Holland – June 2010

All photos are from Utrecht.

The Filipino people are the citizens of the Republic of the Philippines. The term is also often used to refer to a person having Filipino ancestry. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines and about 11 million living outside the Philippines. All the people I met and talked to were very friendly and nice.