Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia

This scene is an original illustration set in Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia. It lies in the tropics, where the climate is tundra — too cold for trees.

The whole island surface is made of layered golden reeds, cross-laid and springy underfoot. Small arched huts built entirely of bundled reeds stand on it, and a double-prowed reed boat is moored alongside. The air is thin and brilliant, the lake enormous.

Why are the island, the houses and the boat all built from one reed?

One plant supplies the island, the houses and the boat — a total material economy built from a reed that grows in shallow water. The islands float because the root mass is buoyant and the layers above are constantly renewed from the top as the bottom rots. A lake large enough for this, at an altitude where the light is this hard, sits on a high plateau between mountain ranges.

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