Ever wanted to live on a house boat? Well, how about living on floating reeds in the middle of a lake?

In the midst of Lake Titicaca, we had the fortune to see a lifestyle that is truly amazing–Islas de los Uros.   The Uros people, who originally perhaps fled from the Spanish who forced the indigenous people to work in the silver mines, live on floating reeds anchored to the lake bottom.  We kid you not!  They now live together in small family units (about 5 or 6 families per island), and there about 50 islands on which these small community units are living. 

the island we visited

the women on the island we visited

 Here is the process that they go through to build their own island:

(1)  they go to a location close to where they live in a shallow area of Lake Titicaca.  There, they cut off large pieces of congealed earth which they then pull over to their chosen island location. They tie them together and anchor them securely to the lake bottom.  These floating pieces of earth act like a cork to form the base of their island. 

a small cross section of the floating cork-like base of each island

(2)  Once the base has been established, they lay pieces of tortora reeds in one direction, then the other until they have a reed depth of about 2 feet.  This is the base of their island.

a small example of the way the reeds are laid on top of the "cork"

(3)  Once they have the island, they begin building reed houses (bedrooms), a reed kitchen, reed boats, and everything one would need to live, including a small trout farm pond in the middle of some of the islands and potato patches built up from the reeds in a raised garden.

the bedroom huts

a trout pond in the middle of one of the islands

(4)  Soft spots on the reed base occur every year or so, and when a soft spot appears, they cut off that section and redo the entire process (get a new “cork” base, place new reeds, etc.)

On each island, about 5 or 6 families live together in their bedroom huts with doors facing each other.   Each island has a leader, and there is also an overall leader of all of the islands.  If families on a particular island do not get along, they begin by placing the doors of the reed huts on the opposite sides so they aren’t looking at each other all the time.  If that doesn’t work, the island leader will decide what to do, and often the island is cut apart (literally, with a saw) and the belligerent family will have to move and connect itself it another reed island and another small community.  

There is no running water, but they do have solar panels, and some families have small TVs.  There is a school on one of the islands, a bank (complete with an ATM), a post office, and even a 7^th Day Adventist Church.  They go into Puno once a week to trade and buy the other necessities they need for living.   They sell fish and birds that they trap, and sea weeds are a part of their diet, but they mostly make their living through the tourist industry.

a bird which they have caught and dried

and they build these kinds of boats, using the same reeds and plastic bottles (inside the runners) for buoyancy.  They use these reed boats for inter-island transportation, to get to the mainland, and to give tourists rides from one island to the next. 

The young adults cannot intermarry within the same island (they know about in-breeding and genetics).  Once a couple gets married from two different islands, the couple moves to the island of the male partner.  

Walking around is squishy and damp (I was amazed that they were mostly barefoot, and my feet were freezing), and there is a distinct moldy smell permeating the atmosphere.  Those negatives asides, the islands and the lifestyle of the Uros truly are amazing.

Harold and Julie as temporary members of the Uros culture

the Litchys and the Rodakowskis having a good time on the reed islands