The Uros Islands are islands in Lake Titicaca in Peru.
background
The Uru or Uro people have been extinct since 1958, but their descendants still try to preserve at least part of the Uru culture. They used to be called Kot-Suns, "sea people", and were considered the wildest people in the Inca empire, with very dark skin. Since the Urus always withdrew to their reed islands in Lake Titicaca during disputes, they could never be subjugated by the Incas.
In the 19th century around 4,000 families still lived on the reed islands, today only around 1,500 to 2,000 people live on these islands. As mestizos they are all descendants of the Aymara and Quetchua, and live almost exclusively from tourism. Their habitat is in the large bay between Puno and the Capachica peninsula, because a large tortora reed belt spreads out here, which includes the islands of Torani Pata, Wuaca Wuacani, Llachu Punchu, Ccapi Coa Muru, Maccano, Titini and Tinajero. The area includes around 80 islands, with nearly a hundred families, including a school island.
When Lake Titicaca burst its banks in 1986, some of the Urus were also affected, so that many islanders had to move to the mainland to Chulluni. Now they go to their islands every morning and commute back to the mainland in the evening. For this purpose, other islands closer to Puno were also completed, namely Paraiso, Uro Chiquitos, Tribuna, Collana, Tronai and Blasero. 146 families live there and there is now a school, a parish hall and a telephone service that is operated by solar cells. Stalls with drinks and more or less local handicrafts were set up especially for the tourists, and several small observation towers were even built.
Half of all families have now settled on the mainland in Chulluni and founded the Uro-Chulluni community of around 2000 people. The other half commutes between the islands and the mainland, most of the boats in the port of Puno belong to these family communities. Wooden, plastic and motor boats have now replaced the original Totoraboats. These balsa boats were used for fishing in the past, but are now only of tourist importance, for example as a postcard motif. Incidentally, fish were caught with nets and birds were hunted with slingshots. In addition to catching fish and birds, the reed stalks of the Totora used to serve the Uru as food. In this way they could survive without farming and thus remained largely self-sufficient and were not necessarily forced to set foot on the mainland.
The reed bundles of the islands have to be repaired every six months, a necessary measure that the younger generation unfortunately neglects too much, which is why larger reed islands regularly sink into the lake. In general, the younger generation's interest in their islands, and the old traditions in general, are waning, preferring a more “modern” city life. Even so, there are still families who keep their floating islands intact and build rush boats.
getting there
The arrival takes place from Puno out by boat. In the port of the city there are many providers for the crossing.
mobility
Tourist Attractions
