Out west, straddling the border with Peru, South America´s largest lake (and the highest one in the world navigable by commercial watercraft, at 3,812 meters/12,507 feet) likely gets its name from the Aymara for ¨gray puma,¨ after a sacred carved rock on the largest of its more than 70 islands, the Isla del Sol, the site of an ancient Incan temple. In addition to being a great destination for birders spotting its dozens of species of waterfowl, visitors are fascinated by the Taquile and other Qechua- and Aymara-speaking peoples living on the fixed and manmade floating islands, whose traditional lifestyles since time immemorial include fishing, making boats out of reeds, and crafts such as knitting (which by the way is done by men!) and weaving (the preserve of women).
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