The Uros, Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca, Peru

Uros Floating Islands on the lake of Titicaca, Peru — One of the earliest pre-Inca cultures of Peru. Uros Island, one of the most famous islands of Lake Titicaca, is located 6 km from the port of Puno and located at a height of about 3,800 metres. It is an amazing archipelago of 40 islands of totora, inhabited by the Uros, direct descendants of one of the oldest cultures of the continent. The origin of the town of Uro was lost in the labyrinths of history, but it presumably descended from Pukinas, one of the oldest communities in South America. The men of this floating community claim to be the owners of the waters of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is one of the most enigmatic and popular. Natural border between Bolivia and Peru, but nevertheless, it does not freeze due to the salinity level. Good size and height. Its deep blue colour, because of its depth, reaches 280 metres in some places, and its landscape, surrounded by mountains, makes it a wonder of nature.

Image credit: Pet_r

The totora reed is plentiful along the edges of Lake Titicaca. The Uru people use them to make their homes, their furniture, their boats, and the islands they live on. Its dense roots support the top layer, which rots and must be replaced regularly by stacking more reeds on top of the layer beneath. The islands are about 4-8 feet thick; they change in size, and more are created as the need arises. Each step on the island sinks about 2-4 inches. It feels soft and spongy when you walk, almost like you’re walking on a waterbed.

The Incas subdued the home of fierce and brutal people, whom they considered a subhuman people. These people lived in perfect harmony with the Titicaca, and exclusively on artificial islands, they wove inns of the lake. As a pure breed has been extinct since the mid-twentieth century, its descendants are today a miscegenation. The Uro Aymara speak Aymara and retain many of their ancient customs. The Uros call themselves the Kotsuña, "The town lake", where they coexist in a social political organisation away from traditional forms of modern civilisation.

Reed Islands of Uros floating 3km from Puno, Lake Titicaca, Peru

Image credit: crossily

The Uros live on woven reed islands that form a floating layer called Khili, and they are attached to the bottom of the lake. Normally, each island belongs to a family clan and is inhabited by between 3 and 10 families. Then the natives built their house, a hut also woven with reeds, impervious to rain, but inside there is high humidity, so they often suffer from rheumatism at a young age. Food is cooked with fires placed on piles of stones. To relieve themselves, tiny outhouse islands are near the main islands. The ground root absorbs the waste. There are 80 floating islands that make up the district of Los Uros in Puno. Some of them have restaurants, churches, and primary schools, all of which are remarkably unstable and have very rustic and basic aspects. Residents move from one island to another using small and colourful boats (canoes), also built based on the cattail, a raw material which serves to build their homes, by way of huts that can be triangular or square with a gable, the people of Los Uros talk about these útlimas as "modern" houses. The main activities of the population in Los Uros are fishing, net making, and crafts. Beautiful cloaks women spin from alpaca wool that, after months of manual labour, offer tourists who visit its islands or take Puno to sell. Extreme poverty is one of the main features in the valley of Los Uros, although the friendly people there do not seem very anxious about it. Surprised to see groups of girls, dressed in colourful clothing, barefoot, up and down the canoes singing for tourists, melodies and songs in different languages. Around 2,000 descendants of the Uros were counted in the 1997 census. Only a few hundred still live on the islands – most have moved to the mainland.