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The National Geographic Magazine 



their hats. The}" sleep on the ground in 

 unfurnished huts, and live principally on 

 elutho, the frozen potato, and cholbna, 

 dried goat or mutton. As we returned 

 to Lake Titicaca, we looked out on the 

 highway which parallels the railroad, and 

 saw Aymaras driving their llama trains 

 and laden burros. In the fields were the 

 shepherds, often mere lads, playing on 

 reed pipes as they watched their flocks 

 of sheep, goats, or alpacas. Glorifying 

 the dreary landscape, the Cordillera dc 

 los Andes towered to the northward, the 

 jagged peaks of Illampu rising to 

 twenty-three thousand feet above the sea. 



THE LAKE Of THE CLOUDS 



Lake Titicaca is in many respects the 

 most extraordinary body of water in the 

 world. It is the highest lake on earth 

 which is steam navigated, and the 

 grandeur of the mountains which sur- 

 round it and the romantic legends which 

 encircle it combine to make this Lake of 

 the Clouds most interesting to the trav- 

 eler. In shape it is long and irregular ; 

 its extreme length is one hundred and 

 twenty miles ; its width sixty miles, and 

 its elevation twelve thousand five hun- 

 dred feet above the sea. The lake is of 

 great depth and never freezes over, al- 

 though ice forms in places near the shore 

 where the water is shallow. 



In color it is dark blue, shimmering in 

 the sunlight, and its brown islands look 

 like a topaz necklace on a sapphire-col- 

 ored gown. Titicaca is a border lake 

 between Peru and Bolivia, and it is on 

 the Bolivian shore that the Andes sweep 

 in a crescent across the horizon. Illampu, 

 or Sorata. is the most majestic of the 

 peaks, but in crossing the lake we saw an 

 uninterrupted chain of mighty nevados 

 stretching from Illampu to the graceful 

 Illimani, the beautiful White Lady which 

 overlooks the picturesque city of La Paz. 



Of the eight large islands in the lake, 

 Titicaca and Coati are the most historic. 

 To the ancient Peruvians they were sa- 

 cred islands in the worship of the sun 

 and the moon. To Titicaca, Island of 

 the Sun, the Peruvians traced their ori- 

 gin — the same Adam and Eve storv 



which we find the world over. From 

 Titicaca the first Inca and his wife — so 

 runs the legend — started forth to the 

 northwest to found Cuzco, Sacred City 

 of the Sun. There are ruins on a num- 

 ber of the islands, and tombs of Inca 

 chiefs near by on the mainland. The hill- 

 sides bordering the lake are barren, ex- 

 cept for a few cultivated patches, but 

 reeds and lake-weed form an emerald 

 fringe around the shore. It is a pretty 

 sight to see the cattle wading into the 

 water to feed on the lake-weed, their 

 principal food at a certain season of the 

 year. The reeds are of great value to 

 the natives, since out of them the balsas 

 or lake boats are woven. 



The rush balsa is the most picturesque 

 feature of the landscape. The sail as 

 well as the boat is built of woven reeds, 

 and the balsa can be used for six months, 

 when it becomes water-soaked, and must 

 be abandoned. Sailing in this queer little 

 craft proved an exciting pastime. The 

 boat is simply a big basket made of bun- 

 dles of grass tied together and shaped a 

 little like a canoe. One is in danger of 

 becoming very wet and very seasick. I 

 decided that the boats are most attractive 

 when seen from the shore. The Titicaca 

 Indians wear homespun, as in years long 

 past, and as I watched a fleet of balsam 

 sailing out to the fishing grounds I real- 

 ized that in the people, crafts, and lake 

 itself there is little change since prehis- 

 toric days. 



On our return to Peru from Bolivia 

 we boarded a small steamer at Guaqui, 

 and were a day crossing the lake to 

 Puno. In the crossing to Bolivia we had 

 been passengers on the Cnyo, a fairly 

 comfortable little vessel, but on the re- 

 turn trip embarked on the Yavari, which 

 certainly was built "when Columbus was 

 a little boy." It was a rough and dis- 

 agreeable voyage, and a number of pas- 

 sengers suffered from seasickness and 

 from soroche. This mountain illness af- 

 fects people differently. Some suffer 

 from pain in the head, others from nau- 

 sea, and the most dangerous form is 

 heart failure. We escaped the trouble 

 a'together, probably because we ascended 



