At 3,820m (12,500 feet) Lake Titicaca is – as every school kid knows – the highest navigable lake in the world. It is also enormous – 170km long and 60km wide. The air here is exceptionally clear and the sunlight unbelievably intense, leading to landscapes of apparent infinity and marvelous luminescence. Near the town of Puno the Uros people have lived for some 500 years on Islas Flotantes made of buoyant totora reeds which are also used for their houses and boats – a delightful place to visit. Life revolves around collecting the totora reeds that are so central to their existence, fishing, and collecting bird eggs from nests amongst the nearby reed-beds. North-west of Puno lies Sillustani, a beautiful peninsular jutting into Lake Umayo where funerary towers called chullpas were built for the Colla and Inca nobility between 900 and 500 years ago.

The main body of Titicaca is very different from the large bay at Puno and here you can get a feel of the enormity of it – more like being at sea then on a lake. Cruising past “hills” of 200-300m you realise that you are at 3,820m above sea level and these “hills” are the tops of substantial mountains. There are amazing views across the sparkling blue-green of the lake towards the snow-covered peaks of the Bolivian Andes, the highest of which is the magnificent Ancohuma at 6,429m.