LAKE Titicaca will remain an inland lost world ocean for many hundreds of thousands of years with its unique ecosystems and cultures as the Andes continues to rise further out of the sea forming a perfect barrier where no rain ever falls.
Nearly all the water that flows into the lake from five rivers through the arid landscape evaporates. Only a small river flows out of the lake into the Atacama Desert to another smaller lake where all the water evaporates. The world’s driest desert ensures none of the water from this vast lake ever makes it anywhere near the sea, isolating it at a lost world ocean of the alpine desert.