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Lake Titicaca – Uros Islands – Day 1

November 19, 2010

During my research for the voyage I found that the most interesting thing to see at lake Titicaca were the Uros islands. These are man-made islands built from totora reeds by the Uros people. Legend has it that when the Incas conquered this area the Uros people fled onto lake Titicaca and starting making their islands. Unfortunately many comments on tripadvisor about these islands were negative, They had become too touristified and most tours would let you stay on one island for 1 hour. An hour packed with sales pitches on handicraft and visits to a bar they had built on an island with outrageous prices. A tourist trap.

I then stumbled on a comment made by someone. It said it was possible to sleep over with a family on one of the Uros islands. One of the islands the tours did not visit and where you got to meet a Uros family and really learn about their life.  I immediately thought that this was something for us. A google search later I had the email address of the daughter of the family. She is studying in Puno and knows some English. I booked us in for two nights, something that was unusual for them, as most tourists stay a single night.

I was particularly happy to have found this family since we knew that the money would go directly to them. I had read about other home stay possibilities at lake Titicaca (not with the Uros, though) where people wrote that the families were getting peanuts from the travel agencies.

We were filled with anticipation when we met the father of the family in the reception of the hotel at 10am. HIs name is Victor, so the round of presentations became an immediate ice-breaker.

He took us up to the main road outside the hotel and explained that we were going to take a “collectivo”. After a few minutes a run-down dirty minivan arrived. We did our best to pile in our luggage (we had left most of it at the hotel, but still had 2 large backpacks and a saxophone). As we started to move forward we realized that the driver was reading a newspaper while driving! We had entered a world a bit different from our planes, first class train rides and hotels. Notice the newspaper resting on the steering wheel:

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We stopped in the middle of nowhere close to the lake and Victor took us down to the shore where he had his boat waiting for us. He would row us out to the Uros islands, a trip of around 45 minutes.

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Viktor fetched the boat from the other side:

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As we navigated through the reed maze we saw families living in the dirt in straw houses. These were not elaborate sturdy houses, like the ones the Uros build. these were quickly set up shacks with minimal binding work. What a place to live.

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The rowing technique was fascinating and very different from the one I´m used to. The Uros stand in the boat and row so they are watching in the direction of the boat. Maybe they do this because they are always navigating through reed and need to see exactly where they are going all the time? Here you can see a boat we passed on our way:

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I read reports on the net from people staying with the family in 2008 that none of them spoke anything else then their mother tongue; Aymara, in addition to Quechua and Spanish. To our surprise Victor understood and spoke quite a lot of English and even some French. Coupled with our rusty Spanish, communication floated pretty easily.

He told us that the lake was at a very low level now. Rain season had just started, but the rain was not coming. As you can see, there were slim chances of rain the day we arrived.

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He also told us that there were now about 2000 Uros people and a little over 62 islands, They were growing quite rapidly. There are 3 schools on the islands, but they only cover the first 6 grades. Afterwards, the only option is high school in Puno. Unfortunately very few of them can afford this, not to mention sending their children to university. His own daughter, Maribel, is studying tourism at the University of Puno, with the intention of helping to develop sustainable tourism on the islands once she has finished.

Most young stay on the islands, as opposed to moving to the cities, mostly because they cannot get a proper education, acording to Victor.

He also told us about their little business. It all started when a Dutch couple had insisted that they wanted to sleep on one of the Uros islands. No one wanted to accommodate them, except for Victor and Cristina, A stay that was ment to last for 3 days, lasted 2 weeks. The Dutch told them that tourists would be willing to pay for this and convinced them to give it a try. The first year was very hard and  they only had 4 visits. Only this year were things really picking up, but it was still hard to live off this.

Once we arrived at the islands we had to pay 5 soles each to enter. This money was evenly distributed to all the families on the islands. Here is the toll booth:

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The sign says “kamisaraki,” which means “How are you?” in Aymara. We also learned “waliki” which means “good” and “jus pagara” which means “thank you”. Essential tools for anyone who wants to break the ice.

We entered a floating village. The islands are alligned in two rows with a very wide “canal” in the middle. Her is one of the islands:

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We passed a cool double-hulled reed boat:

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Then we arrived at the island of Qhantati and were greeted by Victor´s wife, Cristina. Cristina is quite a woman. We had already read her autobiography, which we found on the net. Here is the Google translation to English and French. As you can see she helped her mother fight an abusive employer when she was only 15. She has been very active in defending the rights of the women of the community and has also helped them sell their handicraft through an organization. The project of receiving tourists for overnight stays is the latest great project of the family and started only 5 years ago.

Victor told us that all Uros walk barefoot on the islands at all times. The reeds are quite soft. We decided that when you are with the Uros, you do like the Uros and immediately took off our shoes and socks. What a relief to be able to get some air around our feet after so much hiking.

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It was really something special to finally walk on one of these islands we had read so much about. The reed is indeed very soft and your feet sink a few centimeters down as you walk. it reminded me of walking on hay when I was a kid, just a bit harder.

We were immediately shown our sleeping quarters. Everything was made of reeds, except the wooden frame of the house and the mattresses (OK, I admit, there´s some stuff made of fabric in there, also). Cool.

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The kids absolutely loved the place, and roamed freely around the island. There were no kids there the first day since it was a Friday and they all were at school.

After a short while two other overnight guests arrived. A great british couple with much humor, called Martin and Patricia. We found out from them that the latest edition of Lonely Planet Peru, which came out this April, contains information about the overnight possibility and Cristinas phone number. How great. This was sure to boost their business.

We asked if it was possible to visit the local school and Victor immediately took us there. This was the largest school with about 90 pupils. Children were brought in with boats from their home islands. We spoke with some of the children, who were very curious about us and where we came from. When we were docking by the school I heard the word “gringo” several times.

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We spoke with one of the teachers who could tell us they had 10 pupils in each class. What a difference to the almost 30 in Norway. Previously the only food option at school was candy sellers who dropped by, Now, thanks to a project by an aid organization, they had a school kitchen and real food.

In general we got the impression that the Uros have received much needed help over the past couple of decades. Possibly because of  their uniqueness and fame. Whatever the reason, it was good to see what had been done for them and how they seemed to have been able to adapt well to a modernized world, yet still keep their culture and traditions.

Back at Qhantati was a separate dining house

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where we were treated to a fantastic lunch of trout and quinoa mixed with vegetables. The presentation and quality of the food rivaled a top notch restaurant. Very impressive.

The mood and tempo of life on the island was slow and mellow. It felt great. After lunch Victor came over to us and said, as the most natural thing, that it was now siesta for the next hour and a half. If we wanted to we could sleep. I took his offer and slept like a baby for almost an hour.

The Uros poeple are completely dependent on the totora reeds, which grow abundantly along the shores of lake Titicaca. They are even used for food. At the bottom of the stem it is soft and white on the inside and can be eaten. They are, of course, used to build the islands, the houses, watchtowers, statues and even swings for the children. Previously they were also burned to create heat for cooking.

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Living on, in and around dried reeds, you don´t want any open flames around. This is why the Uros have never heated their houses, and still don´t. The climate here is very harsh. In the winter time the temperature regularly goes down to -10 C (14 F) and the houses will hold around -5C (23 F). Even when we were there we found ice on the ground in the morning.

Previously they used candles for light after sunset and there were cases were islands burned down. A few years ago a university in Lima visited the islands to implement a government project. 200 families were given solar panels and electric lights. This has changed the lives of the Uros.

One island normally accommodates a family group. On Qhantati there are 5 families. Victor and Cristina´s family, the families of Victor´s 2 brothers, his uncle´s family and his parents.

It takes around one year to build a new island. First they carve out large blocks of totora roots that are tangled together and bind a soil like mass. These blocks can have a thickness of around 150 cm (5 feet) and give most of the buoyancy. These are then attached together, they didn´t say how, but I would guess with nylon rope, which they use a lot. The ancestors would use rope made from a type of straw they could only get through trading with other people. On top of the blocks of roots they then put layer upon layer of reeds, alternating the direction, until they have an island. The reed layers at the bottom rot away, so every three months the entire community is engaged in making a new layer of reeds, Reeds are cut and harvested by boat. Normally a harvester will work for a whole day creating a pile of reed 2 meters (6 feet 6 inches) thick covering the entire boat, before returning to the island. The new layer is then made on top. The houses on the island need to be moved in this process to put a new layer of reed under them.

They keep some live complete totora reeds at the brim of the island in several places.This brings oxygen into the root system at the bottom of the island and extends its lifetime. An island lasts for about 25 years before the root layer rots completely and a new island must be made.

The islands have not only grown in numbers because of construction of new ones. Oh no, the Uros have a very original solution to the old mother-in-law problem (I´m NOT saying I have this problem, Roselyne :-) ). When family conflicts seem unresolvable families sometimes agree to cut an island in two to create two new islands. Everyone stays in their houses, but move away from each other. An option we landlubbers do not have. :-)

The islands are also mobile. Around 1990 the islands were much further away from Puno, but were then moved to their current location. The current area is right where a river enters the lake, so they are guaranteed fresh clean water. We could really see the difference compared to the polluted waters just outside Puno.

We learned much of this from a great presentation made by Victor and his son-in-law to be, Abraham. Here they are with a model island:

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Viktor explaining how they put reeds in different directions:

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Rope from straw, like the one used before nylon became available:

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In the afternoon we were asked to come to the dining house and try on traditional Uros clothing. They sure knew how to create a good atmosphere. Putting on the clothes made for many good laughs. Here Maribel puts pompons in Iseline´s hair:

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They then wanted us to take photos next to their reed boat, a work of art in classic Titicaca style. This is the same type of construction that was used for Thor Heyerdahl´s Ra II boat.

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Martin and Patricia next to a traditional cooking place:

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Victor told us that we were going to go fishing. We took it for granted that they did not want us to wear the clothes and potentially make them dirty. We went back and started to take them off. Cristina came running after us and made it clear that hey wanted us to go fishing like true Uros in the traditional clothing.

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The reed boat is rowed with a single paddle, much like the boats in Venice, Italy, Victor´s technique was impressive. Once we arrived he navigated the boat and put out a 200 meter long fishing net while we watched. He did not want any help. This was his domain and he wanted full control.

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On our way back from putting out the nets I had a very good chat with Victor. We discussed everything from different ways of fishing with nets to the different religions of the Uros. There are still a few (around 5% he thought) who follow their old religion, which includes worshiping mother earth. Around 70% are catholics, 15% adventists, 5% protestants and 5% mormons. Missionaries have been active here as they have in many places. Victor himself was catholic. He didn´t much like the adventist and mormon religions. “They are  too western and only made for western people”

Dinner was another great meal. If you take a look at Adrian´s blog entry you can see how dessert was presented.

After we had put the kids to bed we sat around the table in the dining house together with the Martin and Patricia, Victor and Cristina and their daugher Mirabel with her boyfriend, Abraham.

Victor and Cristina:

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Maribel and Abraham:

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After a while the family started singing Uros songs for us. They demanded that we had to sing our songs for them. After a few moments of silence and confusion I threw myself into the ring with the old Norwegian drinking song “Vi skåler for våre venner.” I put my energy into it and topped it with a jumping “HEI SKÅL!” It did the trick, we were on a roll now and soon the English came up with songs of their own. Hélène did a few French ones and we did “Mikkel rev” together. We had a great time and again Victor and Cristina knew exactly what it took to create a good atmosphere.

It had been day full of impressions and we had learned a lot about the Uros people. I fell asleep like a baby at 9pm.

 

Eirik

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4 Comments

  1. Roselyne says:

    C’est passionnant et vous êtes superbe en Uros. Ils ont l’air tous si sympathiques

  2. hal says:

    wonderful travelogue about a magnificent experience! (each post is better than the last :) the photos are wonderful – so full of character and color.

    thx for the dedication to keeping us updated on the big voyage.
    hal

  3. Dauro says:

    I’m wordless. What a trip! I’ve been to the Uros in 89, but just for a few hours. I managed to play volleyball with them, and it was great, but you really had a deep experience of their cotidian life.

  4. Jørn Harald S. Andersen says:

    Dette er jo bare helt rått, Erik! Det må ha vært en fantastisk opplevelse. Det minner meg om 1970-tallet da vi lyttet til La Voz de Titicaca (Puno) på kortbølgen. Minus 8 grader og sur nordavind i Horten.

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