A little late is fine, right?

Yesterday, January 9, I went to the floating islands of Uros. An interesting experience! The islands are built in the shallows of Lake Titicaca using the totoro reeds as their building materials.  

Totoro reeds look somewhat like an onion garden but instead of a hollow stalk like a green onion, the inside of the totoro is sponge filled.

The Uru people continually add layer after layer on the ground of their floating islands. By doing this, they create a top, “squshy” layer about a meter thick, but the reed decomposes quickly and rots from the bottom. This requires the Uru to continually work to maintain their islands. 
Under the squshy layer is a 2 meter thick “platform layer” that is buoyant as well.

The main ground here sinks about 2 inches when walked on and is quite wet, because of this, family homes and seperate cooking huts are constructed on a thicker layer of reeds.

The rectangle shaped homes are also made of the same reed and houses a family of 4.  The buildings last about a year before needing to be fixed or replaced.  Almost every home has solar powered lights, and maybe nothing else was electric. At least nothing I could see.

The cone shaped huts are the more traditional style houses, but now the design is their kitchen.

Boats traditionally were made of reeds as well, but typically they are used for show and tourism these days. Only S/.8 for the “Mercedes Benz ” ride to the next island…

As the neighboring city of Puno grew, the designs on the islands changed.  The Uru started making archways and other alterations. 

After adding another layer of sunburn, it was time to call it a day. I spent S/.10 for the ferry, S/.5 for some piece of paper that wasn’t needed and S/.40 on souvenirs. What a great day!