Théo Curin, the French Paralympic medalist who will swim 120 kilometers from Bolivia to Peru through Lake Titicaca

Swim in the waters of the Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, went from being a dream to a reality for the French Paralympic medalist Théo Curin, who along with two other swimmers from his country began one of the most incredible adventures of his life: swimming from Bolivia to Peru In 10 days.

The three Frenchmen prepared for about 500 days in pools and lakes pulling several kilos of sand to achieve the strength and perseverance enough to swim about 120 kilometers at an altitude of 3,812 meters and thus reach the Uros Islands in Peru.

Achieving this great feat was the dream of Curin, a Paralympic medalist who lost his upper and lower extremities to meningitis as a child, and who summoned the five-time European champion in short and long pools, Malia Metella already Matthew Witvoet, who traveled almost twenty countries by bicycle in 2017.

All three committed to the so-called “Titicaca Challenge”, which began on Wednesday, with an “ecological” slogan to preserve this lake that is considered sacred by many populations of Bolivia and Peru.

“I would say that defining this challenge in one word would be: unique. I think there are many people who dream of making one of their dreams come true and today the three of us are lucky to have the opportunity to make this dream come true “, commented Théo Curin.

One day before starting the great challenge, the three swimmers performed a ceremony to ask permission from Pachamama or Mother Earth to begin this adventure and also to be accompanied by the “energy of the sun” throughout the journey.

The challenge has begun

The local authorities together with the French ambassador to Bolivia, Hélène Roos, accompanied the swimmers before immersing themselves in this adventure from the town of Copacabana in Bolivia.

The three swimmers received statuettes declaring them “distinguished guests” of CopacabanaThey also put necklaces made of pasakallas, a traditional sweet puffed corn, as a way to celebrate the beginning of this adventure.

Later, a group of indigenous people began to play drums and other wind instruments, while several indigenous women threw flowers on the heads of the three swimmers, wishing them success on their journey.

Before entering the lake, the three together with their coach hugged each other to begin to make that “Crazy dream”, as at some point he described it Théo Curin.

Other Bolivian swimmers entered the water to accompany the team in the first meters of their journey, while on a boat the local authorities and the indigenous music group entered to follow the team.

Two of them put on a kind of harness to pull the boat that will be their home for the next ten days and in which they stored their food in reusable bags and their clothing; The boat has eco-responsible mattresses for the three of them to rest at night.

About three kilometers from the start, the swimmers said goodbye to the authorities and all their companions to continue alone.

Half way

The three swimmers are already on the fifth day of the start of the great challenge, half the time they have planned it will take them to reach the Uros Island in Peru.

On the first day of this journey, they managed to travel about 6 kilometers while the wind was blowing at about 18 kilometers per hour, which made it difficult for the team to advance further, the organizers of the challenge told EFE.

Until the fourth day of the adventure, the three managed to travel about 24 kilometers from their departure in Copacabana and they have around 97 kilometers to go autonomously swimming and pulling their raft.

The fourth day was very peculiar for the swimmers, since at night they realized that they deviated 2 kilometers from the anchor point, which caused the team to leave in a hurry towards the place where they should be, but in front they saw how a storm was approaching.

The three decided to tie the back of the raft to a pontoon and sleep in the tent in the middle of a hail storm that put the three on edge for at least four hours, according to information from the organization of the challenge.

Meanwhile, the Bolivian Navy carries out satellite monitoring every day of the location of the three swimmers to be attentive to any contingency that requires them to be rescued, Copacabana’s captain, Jorge López, told EFE.

At the end of his adventure, the boat will serve as a tool for the Research Institute for Development (IRD) can conduct scientific and research studies on Lake Titicaca.

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