After leaving Arequipa I decided to ride up and around Lake Titicaca. It’s a massive lake on the border of Peru and Bolivia that sits at around 12,000 feet. It’s so massive that you can’t even see the other side when you’re standing on the shore.

There is a community of indigenous Aymara people that live on the lake on floating islands made of reeds. They cut the reeds and build whole islands out of them that float on the lake, and then build their houses and schools and everything on top of them in the middle of the lake. They’ve been doing this for hundreds of years and it’s pretty incredible to see.

I got to go spend the night on one with a guy named Henry and his family. He picked me up at the port on shore and took me out in his boat to his island. He showed me how they build the islands and how everything works. It was really fascinating and you get incredible views of the sunset over the lake.

I wish I could have stayed longer but I had to get on to Bolivia so I headed out the next day towards the border. The road curves around the lake and you get some great views of the lake as you ride around it. At one point I had to put my bike onto a ferry and take it across the lake to continue onward.

Overall it was a really cool experience and really fun learning about the very unique lifestyle of the people living on the lake.