Lake Titicaca: That's the Spirit!

Around the corner is a chapel dedicated to the Virgen de la Copacabana, a major pilgrimage destination for Bolivian Catholics. Her portrait is visible through a vaulted door, encased in glass. She's dressed in a flowing robe, and her slight brown face seemed to stare directly at me.

Back in the sun, as I sat under towering palms in the Plaza 2 de Febrero, my desire to explore the spiritual depths of this region was stronger than ever. And so early the next morning, we climbed aboard the Titicaca, a rickety boat crowded with tourists, bound for Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). At 13 by 5 miles, and with several thousand inhabitants, it is the largest and most populous island in the lake. A religious shrine for local tribes as long ago as 500 A.D., it was transformed by the Incas into a major pilgrimage destination in the 15th century.

Bolivians still revere it as the most important and most spiritual of the 40 or so islands scattered across the lake. As our boat approached, I chatted in Spanish with a Bolivian woman dressed in the traditional costume of straw hat and layered skirts. She and her husband and son had traveled from the opposite end of Bolivia for this outing. "All of my life I have wanted to come here," she said. "Now I feel the mood rising."

After landing at Challapampa, one of the small port towns along the coast of Isla del Sol, I could see what she meant. We hiked a coastal stone path, passing corn and grazing goats. Along the way, children dressed in brightly colored clothes peered from behind trees and boulders, their round brown eyes a mix of bashfulness and curiosity. After 15 minutes, we reached the remains of an Incan village, centered on a large stone block and a collapsed building.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at our goal: the Sanctuario, a site of worship for the Incas. Bernardino Ticona, our guide, led us through temples tribal priests once used, stopping at a flat rock marked by two indentions shaped like animal footprints. This was where the Incans brought animals, birds, feathers and sometimes humans to sacrifice, Ticona explained.

Off to one side was a large stone that nature roughly shaped like a wildcat. In Quechua, the language favored by Incas, it was known as Titikala, the place of the puma. The lake was given the same name. Six centuries later, it has stuck.

And so, apparently, has its spiritual status. "Of course, we still believe in the powers of this site," Ticona said. "When we want to reach spirits from above, we come here."

After a trip back to Peru and an overnight in Puno, we made one last excursion -- to the famous floating islands of the Uros and the island of Taquile. In the blue light of early morning, we climbed aboard the Villa del Lago, a small wooden schooner, and were joined by a motley crowd of travelers, including a gaggle of Australian schoolgirls, two German women and a handful of Americans. Our guide was Angel, a 32-year-old Peruvian with indigenous roots.

Forty-five breezy minutes later we were stepping onto Chumi, one of a cluster of islands made of tortora reed near the northern edge of the lake. Ever since the time of the Incas, the indigenous Uros tribes have made the islands by hand, piling stacks of dried reed atop one another. When the lower layers dry out, new ones are added. Several huts made from the same reed were scattered about the island.

In the 1400s, the Uros made their homes on these floating outposts to escape the conquering Incas. Since the late 1960s, however, the islands have become less places of residence and more tourist attraction. By the time we arrived, a group of tribeswomen had already set up a mini-market of tiny canoes made of tortora, utensils carved of wood and other crafts. Men hovered at the edge of the island, offering boat rides in tortora canoes.