Lake Titicaca is enormous — about the size of Puerto Rico. Because it is so high up in the mountains, the air is thin and visitors sometimes feel a little breathless when they first arrive. The local Aymara and Quechua peoples have lived beside the lake for thousands of years and consider it a very special, sacred place.
The Uros people live on floating islands in the middle of the lake. They build everything — islands, houses, and boats — out of totora reeds that grow along the shore. When the reeds on the bottom rot away, new reeds are piled on top. A whole community lives, cooks, and goes to school on these bobbing island platforms.
The lake is home to an unusual frog called the Titicaca water frog. It is very large and has extremely wrinkly skin — the extra skin helps it absorb more oxygen from the water, because there is not much oxygen up so high. Scientists find it fascinating.
The sunsets over Titicaca turn the water every shade of orange, pink and purple. Traditional reed boats called totora boats skim across the surface. Many Bolivian and Peruvian families take enormous pride in the lake — it is at the heart of their history and their identity.