Blog Post #11 Lake Titicaca—Floating Island

At an elevation of 12,507 feet, Lake Titicaca boasts being the highest navigable waterway in the world. It’s also the largest lake in all of South America. I booked a two-day, one-night tour on the lake.

From a passenger boat made for 20 or so passengers, we made our way to our first stop, one of the 42 “floating” islands on the lake. The Uros people, their total numbers of about 2,000 with only a few hundred living on the islands, have the most unusual way of living I’ve ever seen.

House on island with solar panel

The area of the lake just off the shores of Puno is home to vast beds of totora reeds growing in its shallow waters. Four or five families will find an area of especially shallow water and with a saw, cut several two-foot cube root masses, trim the reeds away, and replant them, side by side, in an even shallower area. Those root mass cubes are then tied together in multiple plots, anchored to the lake bed with ropes, then forming the base of an island large enough for the families to call home.

The floor of the island with our guide and native Oros woman

As they are building this foundation, the workers will simultaneously lay down shocks of the nine foot reeds aligned in one direction, followed by shocks in the opposing, perpendicular direction. That process is repeated until, after continuous work for about a year, they have created their island, “floating” about two feet above the water’s surface. The reeds rot over time and the islanders are constantly having to add more and more layers to maintain a dry and safe island floor.

Interior of family home. Notice the reed mattress for the bed

                                                            House's mechanical system

Next they will harvest more reeds which they use build their houses and other structures, such as a toilet (located on its own separate island) and a lookout platform.

Morning's catch laid out to dry

When Alberto Fujimori was president he visited the islands, and became impressed with the way of living of the Uros people and later provided multiple solar panels, light bulbs, wire, receptacles, and conduit so that every family has a home outfitted with enough electricity to provide electric light and run radios and televisions.

Cooking is done outside over a ceramic stove with a contained fire inside. To guard against the fire breaking out on the reed floor, the stove is place on a slab of slate. Elementary, middle and high school education is provided a boat ride away on a neighboring island.

Uros woman displaying her weavings for sale. 

The reed is the backbone of their existence, providing construction material for the island, all structures, boats, and as a food staple. The bottom 8-10 inches of the reed is white, and when an outer layer is peeled away, what remains is the edible inside “banana” portion. These island people are fishermen and the fish they catch are added to the bananas to make up the bulk of their diet.

One of several boats built and owned by one of the villager families

And, they are boat builders extraordinaire. They use the reeds to fashion wide bottom catamaran type vessels with dramatic upward curves in both the bows and sterns. I sat on a platform built in the center and reached by a ladder when we were given a ride. The boat is propelled by oars and because of its low draft, seemingly little energy is needed by the two oarsmen/women to move the boat in whatever way they needed.

An island home to 4-5 families

To me it is a strange and bizarre way of life. To them it was just the way things are. With primitive means of existence, little in the way of space to roam, and entertainment virtually nonexistent I know I could not survive there. Yet, it is just one of the countless ways we as humans adapt, survive, and thrive.