Uros Floating Islands

Magical Peru #16: Uros' Floating Islands in Lake Titicaca

Magical Peru:

We woke up very early in Puno to go on a boat trip on lake Titicaca! On this first part, we stopped by the floating islands of the Uros People. On the next video, we head to Isla Taquile.

The Uros are a pre-Incan people who live on forty-two self-fashioned floating islands in Lake Titicaca Puno, Peru and Bolivia. The Uros use bundles of dried totora reeds to make reed boats (balsas mats), and to make the islands themselves.The Uros islands at 3810 meters above sea level are just five kilometers west from Puno port.

On the afternoon, we continued our boat tour heading to Isla Taquile, the most industrious island in Lake Titicaca. Its walled paths are crowned with rustic arches and dotted with Inca and pre-Inca ruins. Some 350 Quechua-speaking families still live in Taquile island following Inca creeds. Please watch Magical Peru #17:

Puno is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is the capital city of the Puno Region and the Puno Province with a population of approximately 100,000. The city was established in 1668 by viceroy Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro as capital of the province of Paucarcolla with the name San Juan Bautista de Puno. Puno has several churches dating back from the colonial period; they were built to service the Spanish population and evangelize the natives. Lake Titicaca (Spanish: Lago Titicaca) is a lake in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. By volume of water, it is the largest lake in South America. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world, with a surface elevation of 3,812 m (12,507 ft).

When we first arrived in Peru, we spent a couple of weeks studying Spanish in Lima (please watch the vlog Living in Lima) then we headed to the North of Peru and visited Trujillo, Chiclayo and some archaeological sites, such as tombs, pyramids and ancient cities. On the South of Peru, our first stop was in Arequipa, and then we headed to Chivay and its thermal pools (La Calera hot springs) and the Colca Canyon, to do a canyon tour. Now, we go to the country side: Puno, Lake Titicaca, Cusco, Machu Pichu and so on...

On the next video we continue our boat trip on Lake Titicaca and arrive on the Isla Tacuile!

Brasileiro no Peru --
Após passar algumas semanas apenas em Lima estudando espanhol e conhecendo o que a capital peruana tem a oferecer, nós partimos para explorar o país. Começando pela região Norte, fomos até Trujillo, Chiclayo, Huanchaco, Huacas del Sol e de la Luna, Chan Chan e o sítio arqueológico da Tumba do Lorde Sipán. Depois, descemos pelo Sul do Perú, em lugares como Arequipa, Chivay, Cânion de Colca, Puno e Lago Titicaca, e terminamos nossa jornada no interior, em Cusco, no Vale Sagrado e em Machu Pichu.

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Diogo Kyrillos

Uros Islands on Lake Titicaca: life on a floating island for Peruvian Indians

Life on a floating island can’t be easy – but the Peruvian Indians of the Uros Islands, Lake Titicaca, have been doing it for centuries. Take a balsas boat from Puno and discover a fascinating aspect of Peruvian culture – the floating islands of Uros - made entirely from totora reeds. We visit one floating village.

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★ T R A I L E R ★
Welcome to the Uros Islands.

My name is Percy, the leader of this community. There are six families living on this island, which is 40 metres long and 30 metres wide. Family members always stay near their brothers, or near their fathers and mothers. Fathers and mothers are important – they are leaders of the community.

The most important activity in this community is fishing. We also have handicraft. The women make small objects for Uros life. The men use reeds of totoras to make small boats for sailing and big boats to be used as gondolas for tourist transportation or taxis in Lake Titicaca.

My name is Amalia, and I live on this island with six families in total. I’m married, and I have one child who is six years old. I work on this island, especially for men. I cook for the husbands. When they are working, cutting the totoras, they need food. I wake up at about 6am. Families normally go to bed at about 8pm.

We cut many reeds of totora to make the houses we put on the islands. Totora grows in another place, we cut it and bring it to the island. We also fix any broken houses using green totoras, not dry totoras. We travel four kilometres every six weeks to gather fresh totoras to put on the island. We use totoras roots to create small gardens on the island and sometimes we plant crops.

Our boats are called balsas. The balsas are our local traditional transportation. Children use small balsas to go to school and men use them to go fishing. We use the big balsas – that we call Mercedes Benz - as transportation to go from this island to other places and come back here.

Here brothers and sisters work together – we live here. And we do good work to make sure the island stays afloat. We use these reeds and roots to keep the island afloat. This island is held together by many root pieces – that’s its foundation. We cut and bring big block pieces. From this place to another it’s long kilometres. Here they’re like brick shapes. In each block piece, we put a eucalyptus rod, which we get from the mainland, not from the island. Then we use a rope to tie it. We tie all the root pieces together. This protects the reeds from breaking apart and so it holds its position. Local people call these blocks idli. This makes the islands float.

This island has 12 anchors. This holds it in place in the windy season. If it’s too windy, we’ll end up in Bolivia – and we don’t have Bolivian passports. Ancestors on Uros used to use this kind of rope, but it doesn’t last for a long time. Now we use synthetic rope to tie the foundations. This is a tool to cut the green reeds of the totora. On these foundations we put many layers of reeds. Firstly, we put them in one direction, and then the other direction, so it makes a crisscross shape. The block is approximately 1 metre. The totoras layer is 2 metres. The whole thing is 3 metres. The houses are made out of totoras reeds. This is for the rainy season or protection.

They use this tower for local communication in the Uros community. They call to other people for local activities and celebrations.

Let’s go and take a look at the houses. This is a family house – it’s a modern house.

In the rainy season, we use plastic and reed mats on the roof. Local people dry their totoras reeds in this shape. They use the dried reeds to make houses. This is another family house. This family is drying reeds of totoras to put over their roof. This is my house. This big one is one of the first houses. It belongs to my father. It’s the first house near the lake.

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★ W H E R E W E S H O T T H E V I D E O ★
Uros Islands on Lake Titicaca: life on a floating island for Peruvian Indians

Country: PERU
Region: PUNO
City: LAKE TITICACA
GPS: 15°49'6.24S 69°58'24.46O
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