Images from my recent trip to Peru. In a word, "amazing". What a wonderful and diverse country with all the culture and food anyone could ask for. I took these images while I was passing through the Sacred Valley. I can't wait to get back to South America, I love everything about it except the stomach aches. Peru also has the highest and largest fresh body of water in the Americas. Lake Titicaca. I remember hearing this word for the first time in first grade, but I never asked where or what it was.
Fun facts on Titicaca
The lake is located at the northern end of the endorheic Altiplano basin high in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. The western part of the lake lies within the Puno Region of Peru, and the eastern side is located in the Bolivian La Paz Department.
The lake is composed of two nearly separate sub-basins that are connected by the Strait of Tiquina which is 800 m (2,620 ft) across at the narrowest point. The larger sub-basin, Lago Grande (also called Lago Chucuito) has a mean depth of 135 m (443 ft) and a maximum depth of 284 m (932 ft). The smaller sub-basin, Wiñaymarka (also called Lago Pequeño, "little lake") has a mean depth of 9 m (30 ft) and a maximum depth of 40 m (131 ft).[5] The overall average depth of the lake is 107 m (351 ft).[1]
Lake Titicaca is fed by rainfall and meltwater from glaciers on the sierras that abut the Altiplano. Five major river systems feed into Lake Titicaca[6]—in order of their relative flow volumes these are: Ramis, Coata, Ilave, Huancané, and Suchez.[3] More than 20 other smaller streams empty into Titicaca, and the lake has 41 islands, some of which are densely populated.
