Visiting the Incredible Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca Peru | Uros Islands & Taquile Island

All right. How's it going? I'm Sarah and he's James and we're the Whole World or Nothing. We are in Puno which is the gateway to the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca where they have floating islands made out of reeds which people actually live on. And that's where we're heading first to visit one of the Urus islands to meet the community who live there and learn about their traditions and way of life. The Urus people have been living on Lake Titicaca for hundreds of years but were originally forced to move from the land to the water when the Incas took over this part of South America. There are close to 100 floating islands but you can't just hop on a boat and visit any of them. Each of the islands is completely self-sufficient and each chooses whether or not they want to supplement their income with tourist visits and selling handmade souvenirs. If they do opt in the tour boats will then visit on a rotation system. The floating island that we visited had a community of 22 people made up of five families living on it. Native to Lake Titicaca the Totora reeds are not only used to construct the Urus islands but also to make boats, homes and furniture too. And they're also a food source. Here our guide is talking about how the hearts of the reeds have a good nutritional value. So that's why the children eat every day and they conserve their teeth white color you know good for children. When you have fever in your stomach you eat this one no fever headache excellent to you is the fruit of the Urus. Our guide together with the community leader did a demonstration for us to show exactly how the man-made floating islands are constructed and maintained. First of all blocks of roots are taken from the rivers that feed into Lake Titicaca. These are cut up so they're more manageable to transport and then they're fastened back together with rope and pegs. But because the roots are still living the blocks just naturally knit back together over time. The reeds are cut and laid on top of each other to form the floor of the island and in order to compact them new islands will invite neighboring communities over for parties and to play sports. Then over time as the reeds decompose from the bottom upwards more reeds needed to be added every few weeks. And then as the islands are literally floating anchors are used to keep them in one place. We were also invited to take a look inside one of the family's homes. The Urus people eat a simple diet of fish and birds found on lakes such as wild ducks and trade the fish and meat on the mainland in Puno for potatoes quinoa and vegetables. Despite being firmly anchored the floating islands do move sometimes for example if two communities are joined together by marriage then they may decide to join their islands together as well in which case yankers will be removed and the boats will pull the island to its new position. Likewise our guide also told us there have been instances where a community has become divided. When this happens they literally split the island in two in order to form a separate community. And our guide explained to us that although the Urus communities do live traditional lifestyles they're not against modern amenities and that in fact most have solar panels, motorboats, radios, televisions and mobile phones. By the way Titicaca lake is bloody massive it's got an area of 8372 squared kilometers making it the largest lake in the whole of South America and it doesn't just belong to Peru it actually straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia. At a whopping 3810 meters above sea level it's also the highest navigable lake in the entire world and it's seriously deep in parts too, 281 meters to be exact, which means it gets seriously choppy in parts with some pretty large waves and it's why the Urus islands are closer to the shore. Of Taquile which is completely different to the floating islands it's a lot bigger there's maybe almost two and a half thousand people I think on this island. Our guide told us that there are six communities living here and they've got their own rules they wear completely different dress from the floating islands as well. Yeah so there's a different hat that the men wear to signify whether they're married or unmarried and the women also wear different colour jumpers to signify whether they're unmarried or married as well. So white and red hats are worn by single men whereas a red decorated one like this one means that this man is married and for example the woman on the left wearing the red jumper is married but the woman on the right wearing the yellow jumper is unmarried. Interestingly the culture is for new couples to first live together and have kids then get married. Oh and you can tell who the community leaders are because they wear these black round hats. And the main jobs that people have here are either farming or fishing but they do supplement their income a little bit with tourism these days. There's also absolutely no roads on this island no motorbikes no cars absolutely nothing but it's at altitude and it's pretty high the hill is pretty steep. Yeah there's seven ports but the guys have to carry everything up from the ports themselves like they're their own porters. Yeah they have 20 kilogram or 40 kilogram bags that they just hike up on their backs it's pretty impressive. Yeah but their life expectancy was what did you say 70? 78. 78 so yeah it's a good life. Part of our tour included the Tacalenos family hosting us for lunch. We had a quinoa soup followed by trout from Lake Titicaca and then a herbal tea called muña. It was all delicious. The knitted hats with ear flaps that the men wear are called chullos. The one on the right is the one that single men wear. Curiously the knitting is the responsibility of the men and the weaving that of the women. Due to the textile art Taquile Island is also a UNESCO site. And here our guide is explaining about the calendar waistbands which are wide woven belts with depictions of annual agricultural rituals and cycles. Women make them as wedding gifts for their husbands and as part of the process cut their hair and weave it into the textile. Isolated from the mainland until the 1950s the sense of community here is strong and with the exception of electricity and some technology the island has remained unchanged. And that's just the way the communities here like it we were told. A simple way of life where family and joint decision making are the most important things. Back on the mainland we checked out the pretty city of Puno some more before heading off to our next destination in Peru Araquipa. We'll see you there next time. Guys thanks for watching we absolutely love this part of South America. As usual there's a blog post in the comments with lots more details. And don't forget to like and subscribe drop us a comment down below and hit that bell button as well so you get notified every time we post a new video. See ya. Bye.