Lake Tota

Where is Lake Tota?

Countries on its shores: Colombia.

Largest lake of: Colombia.

Middle of the lake: 5.54° N, 72.92° W

The story behind it

The water of Lake Tota is only about 13 °C on average. The lake is about 12 km long and has several islands, such as San Pedro and Santa Helena. The Upía River starts here, and its water later reaches the great Orinoco River. Long ago the lake was an important holy place for the Muisca people, and old Muisca legends tell how it came to be. Today the town of Aquitania lies on the eastern shore, and so many onions grow around the lake that it is one of Colombia's main onion regions. People once put rainbow trout into the lake, and some anglers have caught trout weighing 7 kg. But the trout ate the small native grease fish, which has probably died out. Rare birds such as the Bogotá rail and Apolinar's wren still breed at the lake.

Find it on the globe

Lake Tota is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.