Floating city

Satori, Peru, subcultures — Stephen on 15 Septiembre 2008 @ 7:49 — 1 comment

Juliette and I took a trip yesterday morning out on Lake Titicaca to visit a group of small islands belonging to a people called Los Uros. They are a pre Inca people that live on islands made entirely of reeds that grow in the lake. They originally moved to these islands as a defensive measure, and have been living on them for hundreds of years. The owner of the boat we rented took us to his family island that he shares with his mother, wife, daughter and two sons. He explined to us how his island was built about 15 years ago by pulling clumps of reeds together and then filling in with more reeds. As they rot from the bottom, they need to replace the top layer every 15 to 30 days depending on the weather. We also visited the largest island in the center of these which serves as a kind of commercial center for the group with small shops selling goods imported from the mainland. The Uros get items they can’t produce themselves (like fruits and vegetables) by trading textiles they make or fish they capture with the mainland.