Shó Me The World: Puno and the Uros Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca, Peru

Country: Peru

City: Puno

Duration: 1 day

We arrived in Peru! Our first pit stop was Puno. We had just come by bus from Copacabana in Bolivia that morning and were continuing onto Cusco that night.

Johnny and I took a half day tour of the Uros Floating Islands from the port in Puno. The Uros Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca are such a unique tourist destination. These floating islands are home to the Uros tribe, one which pre-dates the Incan civilization.

The few hundred people living on 40+ islands use totora reeds which grow in the lake to make (and re-make) their islands, along with their homes and boats. The reeds at the bottom of the islands rot away fairly quickly and so every few months a new layer of reeds needs to be added to the top of the island. To prevent the island from floating away from the rest of the community, it is anchored with ropes attached to sticks which are driven down into the bottom of the lake. It is believed that the original purpose to living on these islands was for defence. They were away from the mainland and if a threat arose, they could pull up the anchors and float away! The Uro people continue living by fishing, weaving and now, tourism.

We set sail and after about 30mins in our boat, we arrived at the first of two islands that we were going to visit. The people on the island sang us a song when we arrived and showed us their reed huts and told us some stories.

We then took a short boat ride in their man made reed boats around some of the islands.

Before leaving we were asked if we wanted to purchase any of their handmade crafts! We then headed off to another island where we could get a drink or our passport stamped! It was very touristy but I still enjoyed it as I was fascinated by the structure of the islands and I knew there were many islands untouched by tourism and I enjoying imagining what life was like for them.