The biggest lake in South America, and the highest navigable lake in the world, lies at 3,810 m (12,507 ft), its 196 km (122 ml) length spanning the Andean border between Peru and Bolivia. Lake Titicaca is the cradle of Inca civilization — and Isla del Sol is the Incas’ holiest site. Here, Inti’s (the Sun God’s) children, Manco Tupac and Mama 0db, burst from a prominent sandstone crag called Titikala (the Sacred Rock), banishing darkness and bathing the world in the brilliance of the re-born Sun. The Incas built a temple on the rock, later expanded by the 10th Inca Tupac, Inca Yupanqui. He also built a convent for the ‘mamaconas’ (chosen women) and a ‘tambo’ (inn) for visiting pilgrims, and these are among 180, mainly Inca, ruins on the island. But the excavations at Ch’uxuqulla, above the small Bay of Challa, also show that lsla del Sob had been a sacred place for at least 5,000 years before the Incas.

Isla del Sol

Even today, most things about Lake Titicaca are at odds with the modern, technological and political world. The Aymara people who farm Isla del Sob grow barley, quinoa wheat, potatoes and maize on the stepped terraces hacked into every available surface of the harsh, rocky terrain — just as their ancestors did for millennia, while the Incas came and went from power. Today, the island is part of Bolivia, but power and ownership simply don’t matter when you are actually there. It’s the resident Aymara who guard the spiritual continuum of the place. Their fishing, fields and alpaca herds allow no development of conventional tourist amenities or roads (though local families will happily rent you a cabin or room), and the way of life is utterly indifferent to visitors who pace and race. Coming from cities, take the time to pause and drink in the harsh geography, made beautiful by an innate and transcendent sense of peace.

POPULATION: 5,000 (2007 estimate)

WHEN TO GO: October to March, when the days are warmer. Nights are always cold.

HOW TO GET THERE: By the principal ferry boat, via several of Titicaca’s islands, to/from Puno (Peru) from/to Guiaqui (Bolivia). Backpackers can reach the small Bolivian lakeside village of Copacabana by bus or car, then take an open boat for the 1-hour ride to Isla del Sol.

HIGHLIGHTS: The settlement of Challapampa, set among Inca ruins in the ‘V of two beaches narrowing into an isthmus at the island’s northern tip. Jacques Cousteau used a mini-submarine to search the offshore area for the two-ton gold chain of Inca Huascar, part of the legendary Inca treasure sunk in Titicaca when the Spanish reached Cuzco. The imaginings triggered by the breath- sapping climb straight up 200 ancient Inca stairs, leading from the port to Yumani, the only real ‘town’. The Bolivian ‘beach town’ of Copacabana, site of the Fiesta de Ia Virgen de a Candelaria (‘The Dark Virgin of the Lake’), carved by Inca Tito Yupanqui in 1592.

YOU SHOULD KNOW: The Aymara and Quechua of Lake Titicaca, and of Isla del Sol in particular, drive hard bargains in their dealings with the urban world of their Visitors — but they are not of that world; and we trespass on their sacred sites.

Bahia is one of the oldest regions of Brazil, settled by the first Portuguese in the early 16th century; and its atmosphere is famously laid-back. Just to the south of Salvador itself, at the heart of the Costa do Dende (named after the African oil-palms which grow everywhere) is the Tinhare Archipelago. Its small islands dot the deep blue sea, divided by rivers, lush virgin rainforests, mangroves and beautiful hidden bays with picturesque fishing villages untouched by tourism — and a handful of resorts popularized by some of the world’s most famous and fashionable people.

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Properly speaking, Papagaio is a private island with just 20 stand-alone bungalows set in a forest of palms and fruit trees- It lies at tlie southern tip of Santa Cated.na Island, some 30 km (18 nd) from Florianopolis, the island capital of Santa Caterina State in soutliern Brazil.
Two things make Papagaio really special. Firstly, most of it is a protected nature reserve, like the 145 km (90 ml) of adjoining coastline that constitutes, onshore, the Atlantic Rainforest State Park of Serra do Tabuleiro; and, offshore, Brazli’s Right whale sanctuary. Less than ten years ago, Southern Riglit whales had been ......

Bigger than Switzerland, Marajo is one of the world’s great, fluvial islands. Even though it’s open to the Atlantic on one side, it’s completely surrounded by fresh water: the force of the Amazon outflow on its north, and the Tocantins/Para estuary on its south side, keep the salty ocean at bay. Marajo’s western half, the Regiao da Mata, is mainly thick forest and jungle. The Regiao dos Campos in the east is an area of low lying fields; and the coast is a spectacular combination of dense mangroves and lovely beaches, flanked by arcades of miritzeiros (Amazon royal palms). ......

From the warm clear waters of the Atlantic Ocean, 350 km (220 mi) off the coast of Brazil, tile lush green mountains and sheer cliffs of Fernando de Noronha rise in all their tropical perfection. There are 21 islands in the archipelago, all uninhabited apart from Fernando de Noronha itself. The waters surrounding the islands are a National Marine Reserve and home to countless species of fish, rays, sharks and spinner dolphins. Considered to the one of the most important ecological sanctuaries in the world and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the area attracts keen divers and wildlife ......

South-east of Rio de Janeiro in the Agra dos Reis district of Brazil lies Ilha Grande, a long mountainous ridge emerging from the turquoise sea. There are over 360 islands in the bay, their forested slopes leading down to some of the most pristine beaches in the world. Much of the area is designated as the Ilha Grande State Park to protect its natural beauty. There was once a penal colony here, the infamous Candido Mendes, set up to hold the country’s most notorious criminals, but today people come here to enjoy themselves in the glorious natural surroundings.

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In the Pacific Ocean, some 965 km (600 ml) off the coast of Ecuador, lie the Galapagos Islands. The name comes from the Spanish galdpago, or saddle, after the saddle backed tortoises found on the islands. This volcanic archipelago comprises 13 main islands, six smaller islands and 107 rocks and islets. The oldest island is thought to have formed between five and ten million years ago. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed. In 2005, an ash and water vapour cloud rose 7 km (4.4 ml) above Fernandina and lava flows descended the slopes of the ......

Around 500 km (314 mi) off Colombia’s Pacific coast, a towering barren rock rises from the ocean floor with sheer precipitous cliffs, The island of Malpelo has a slightly sinister air, perhaps because it is the peak of a huge submarine ridge rising straight up from the ocean floor from depths of 4,000 m (13,120 ft). At 376 m (1,233 ft) above sea level, the island is high enough to create its own weather system and it is often wreathed in cloud, however clear the sky. At first glance, the island seems to be a barren rock without vegetation, ......

The 23 islands, cays arid islets of the Rosario National Park are a geologically infant 5,000 years old, formed when the sea level dropped, revealing areas of coral reef, which were gradually colonized hy mangroves and other accretions. Eventually, the islands consolidated into three distinct ecosystems — coastal lagoons, the mangroves surrounding them, and the very dry tropical forests of the interior. On Isla Grande, you can follow an environmental interpretation path that explains the inter-dependence of the systems anti their importance to the breeding cycles of the hundreds of marine and bird species you can see all around ......

Only 220 km (140 ml) from the coast of Nicaragua, San Andres and Providencia are the two significant islands of a scattered Caribbean archipelago of cays that in fact belongs to Colombia, 775 km (480 mi) to the southwest, Providencia was named by its first settlers, English Puritans who in 1627 spht from their contemporaries in Massachusetts, USA, in search of somewhere warmer to practise their religion. On arrival, they turned to slavery, then piracy; and from 1670-89, the island was Henry Morgan’s HQ until the Spanish regained control and lost interest. Now, the descendants of former slaves and ......