High in the Andes, Lake Titicaca's water levels fall to historic lows
Pedro de la Cruz stands beside his stranded boat and supplicates his God, lifting his arms and praying anxiously for rain to replenish Lake Titicaca, the massive body of water at a breath-sapping altitude in the Andes on ...
"Dear God, make more rain come," the 74-year-old says, invoking Pachamama, Mother Earth for Indigenous people of the region. "Help us, please, we are parched here.... Make the rain showers come... Father in heaven, have pity."
De la Cruz, a former state employee, spoke in Aymara, his native language, as he surveyed what was once the shore of Lake Titicaca, some 45 miles (77 kilometers) west of the capital La Paz.
The waters of Lake Titicaca are within 10 inches (25 centimeters) of their all-time low, a record set in 1996, the chief forecaster for Bolivia's weather service (Senhami), Lucia Walper, tells AFP.
Along what was once the 700-mile shoreline of the lake, one now sees boats stranded on dry land and orphan docks stretched over nonexistent water.
Low levels mean that fish that ordinarily spawn near shore are now unable to, and that leads Edwin Katari, a 43-year-old fisherman, to mull a question.
"So where are the fish going to spawn?" Katari asks.
Dark forecast
Bolivia's Senhami has measured water levels of the lake since 1974.
Pedro de la Cruz walks in a bone-dry area that was once part of Lake Titicaca.