The harbor waters are still. Beyond this sheltered inlet a stiff wind whips the lake into whitecaps. I don’t much like choppy waters…
Lake Titticaca sits just over two miles above sea level and encompasses 3200 square miles. This makes it the highest and largest navigable lake in the world. Shared by Peru and Bolivia, I sail these rough waters from the Peruvian side, headed for Isla del Sol. Although my destination is an island under Bolivian jurisdiction, there’s no passport control to deal with here.
Inka Steps
My boat puts ashore at the base of a stone staircase below the village of Yumani. The untrained archeologist’s eye in me surmises that the majority of these steps must be pre-Incan, as they hold very little of the precision of Incan construction I’d seen throughout the Andes.
All the village children are gathered at the base of these steps because they know the climb ahead is formidable – they earn soles from the oxygen-deprived visitors hauling luggage up the 206 uneven platforms. Although I anticipated these altitude difficulties and spent a week moving from sea-level into the Altiplano to acclimatize myself, the thin air still winds me.
After a slow climb I reach the top to find an arched portal popularly called the Incan Arch. Again this construction’s most likely pre_Incan, it lets me know however that I’ve made it. I pause here to catch my breath and meet up with my guide, Percy, a professor from the University of Puno. He’ll lead me to one of many sacred spots dotting this isle.
Pilgrimage Path
Percy greets me with a handshake and smile. He explains his research and findings on the various Altiplano civilizations pre-dating the Incas that many disagree with. Most of his colleagues agree that people formed communities surrounding Lake Titticaca around 1400 BC, moving through several phases of evolution that peeked with the Tiwanaku civilization in the late first millennium. However he sees it differently – his studies indicate that complex societies extend back to at least 4000 BC.
We walk about a mile along an ancient pilgrimage path following the island’s crest to a rocky pinnacle. Soon I see this is more than just a field of boulders sitting on a hilltop. Pieces of ruined temples lie scattered around us with a cairn of stones marking the location of the crumbled holy altar. These islands were considered sacred long before the Incas conquered them and these power spots (huacas).
Huacas
Percy selects a flat boulder near the altar and we take a seat to view his hand-drawn map. It diagrams the Bolivian/Peruvian Altiplano, beginning south of Tiwanaku and continuing north past Cusco. The map’s bisected by a diagonal “spirit” line that marks the path of earth magnetism, which he likens to the 60’s interpretation of Ley Lines – energetic lines in the earth’s crust. As this line cuts a path northwest through Lake Titticaca and Isla del Sol, the many huacas or power spots it crosses are energized.
Our view from the ruined alter is magnificent and I easily become spiritual in this place. Perhaps it’s the spirit line beneath my feet but meditation is my immediate default. As I gaze at the deep blue sky above reflected by the water below, the snowcapped Andes Cordillera in the distance seems to float on the far horizon.
Written by : Steve Smith
Header photo by : Tom DL, Creative Commons (remixed by Steve Smith)
Inka Step photo by : Christine Johnson
Pilgrimage Path photo by : Alexson Peisino, Public Domain (remixed by Steve Smith)
Huaca photo by : Christine Johnson