Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, with a surface elevation of 3,812 m. We choose to get around it from the east side as it seemed to be more wild, more remote and certainly less touristic than the west side.
View on Illampu (6,368 m) and Ancohuma (6,427 m)
Before heading to Juliaca, we wanted to see what was on the other side of the mountains. So we climbed over the closest pass to do a short ride to Sorata, down at 2,678 m at the bottom of Illampu. We found a great mountain bike route that follow the ridge in that incredible valley.
Who needs a mountain bike when you got a Trek 520
Meeting Canadians with mountain bikes on the way down
Once our descent was completed and after a good night in less higher altitude, we took a bus back to the pass to get down to the Titicaca. 30 km downhill and 40km with a headwind, and we arrived to a beautiful beach at sunset where we spent the night. We set up the tent on the beach, started cooking, and when we were ready to go to sleep, the wind started to blow again. We then decided to move our tent to a house still in construction near by. The wind kept blowing really hard that night.
Sunset on Lago Titicaca (3812m)
When we arrived to that beautiful creek, we thought it was the perfect place to spend the night. As the days and nights were still really windy we needed to find a shelter to put up the tent. On our way down to the beach we saw a few locals playing around next to the water and we asked them if they knew a place protected from the wind for the night. We met Henri, that invited us to stay in a small house with two beds next to his main house.
The next morning Henri came to wake us up with a nice hot tea and some small bred. We then went to his house to meet his family and they invited us to stay with them for the day, as they were celebrating Día de Todos los Santos.
Bred fruits and food to welcome the spirits