UROS PERU, [FLOATING ISLANDS, LAKE TITICACA]

UROS PERU, [FLOATING ISLANDS, LAKE TITICACA]:  Don't just see the islands, but also visit the TITICACA NATIONAL RESERVE to enjoy birds & scenery

Uros, Peru, Floating Islands in Lake Titicaca

The Uros people live on about 40 floating islands in lake Titicaca; the islands are made of totora reeds, a subspecies of the Giant Bulrush Sedge. The latter is harvested from the extensive marshes and continuously piled up on top of the existing layers, thus compensating for the continuous decomposition. In fact, Uros, Peru, Floating Islands in Lake Titicaca may house anywhere from a few to 10 families.

The Uros built their floating islands around the shores of an internal lake within a reed marshland area with many creeks and little lakes, full of water birds. Regular tours take you in a 40 passenger boat through the main channel to one of the islands. Our National Parks Tour zig zags in a small boat through the marsh area at the top right to get you to the Urus islands, watching marsh birds and nature on the way to the islands.

The Uros bind dried totora into bundles, which are then bound together into canoe shaped rafts, that float on the buoyancy of the reed, rather than on being a watertight vessel. Over the last few decades, they began building artistic rafts to take around tourists.

Living on islands, fishing is one of the primary economic activities. While the lake has a variety of native and even endemic fish species, like ispi, carachi and catfish, the introduced trout and kingfish are among the important catches. Families also have one or a few cows or pigs, for which they must bring fodder. Ducks, Gulls and Flamingos are also hunted.

Decreed in 1978, the islands are part of the Titicaca National Reserve, 37,000 ha of protected marshes at the Eastern and Northern shores of the lake, respectively Ramis, in the provinces of Huancané and Ramis; and in the province of Puno. The reserve protects over 60 species of aquatic birds, four families of fish and 18 species of amphibians.

A typical floating islands tour Titicaca tourist boat takes visitors in 40 minutes to the floating islands.

These rafts are specially built to take groups of visitors around.

Typical villages on a Uros, Peru, floating islands, where women in traditional clothes welcome visitors.

While houses have grown in size a bit, not much has changes over the years. These two pictures of Uros, Peru, Floating Islands in Lake Titicaca, are scans from slides I took in 1975! The Uros now use metal pots for cooking.

While the original Uru reed boats (called balsas) can still be found, the Uros now use small motorized row-boat-type boats for their day to day use.

On this Uru reed raft or balsa on land, one can see how the much thicker bottom bundles actually serve as floaters so that the user can stay dry.

Climatological Information for Juliaca, Peru

Location of weather station : 15.5 S, 70.0 W, altitude : 3825 m

UROS PERU, FLOATING ISLANDS