The Reed Islands of Lake Titicaca

Day 10 of our adventure, we took a bus to get on a boat to take an even smaller boat to visit the Uros people who live on floating reed islands. We had to make all the shifts because the lake is extremely low this year.

The reed life is quite interesting. The Uros collect blocks of dead reeds that eventually float to the surface, making their islands by lashing the blocks together with young reeds.  They frequently pile new reeds atop the old, as the reeds break down. On the particular island we visited, 7 of the 9 families sleep on the islands while the others go back to Puno at night.

These people cannot grow anything on their island and subsist on tourism. Each home now has a solar panel that provides enough electricity to power a light or small television.

The reed island residents sometimes subtract families (in the case of a dispute) be cutting their home loose from the rest of the island. Similarly, on the day we visited, they were about to welcome another family by lashing their home to the island.

Once we left the islands, we traveled on to Taquille Island where the Aymara live. There are no cars and little electricity, so the Aymara people live much as they have for centuries.

After lunch we were treated to music and dances. Henry and I were both asked to participate in the dancing.

We got back to the hotel around 5pm with an opportunity to visit the Sillustani, the site of some of the most impressive funerary towers. They were built by the Colla people around 600 AD to bury their royalty.

Dusk on Lake Titicaca