Uros Islas: Part 2

The wind blows fiercely  at the door of the reed house. I wonder if the thatch roof will keep us dry. Lightning cracks through the darkness, reflecting off of the great Lago Titiqaqa, and floods the inside of the house for only a brief second. I run outside to see our host, Ruben, dragging a large plastic tarp out of the reed house to our right. He is pulling it towards the catamaran, a doubled up reed canoe with a top observation deck. Traditionally, reed boats were made solely from natural material and had to be rebuilt every 6-8 months. Now, hundreds of plastic liter and 2-liter bottles are wrapped in sheets of plastic with reeds as the exterior. These boats can now last as long as 7 years.
These tall reeds that grow around 4-6 meters, are the lifeline for the people of the Uros. Not only are their houses and boats made of them, but the islands are actually created from the root systems of these reeds. The roots are hollow and filled with oxygen, which gives the soil buoyancy. On top of the soil, dried reeds are cut and placed criss-crossing each other for many layers. Because these small clusters of "islands" are living, they decompose and every fifteen days are replenished. A boat guide, Julio, explained to us that during dry season, especially before the use of solar panel electricity (brought as a gift from infamous former president Fujimori) he watched several islands go up in flames. I haven't see one person yet who is a smoker on these islands, and I can imagine with good reason. They joke that if you don't like your sister (or her new husband) you can just cut your part of the island off. Some islands are very close together and look as though they were just severed from one another. I nearly stepped off of the edge of one and into the lake when looking for the "bathroom." Each island is about the size of a suburban plot of land. On our current small island, there are 7 small one room huts. We sleep on foam mattresses that are piled high with blankets, and thankfully since the temperatures drop below freezing this time of year.

What on earth possessed us to stay on this island? It is not the norm to stay on Uros, more likely is to stay on one of the bigger (non-reed) islands. The lake is enormous, stretching between Peru and Bolivia. As much as we would have liked to visit the other side of the lake (and get to some great areas in Bolivia) a hefty tax is imposed on US citizens. More than it would have cost for most of our visit there. Puno, the mainland point on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, is in many ways a typical South American port town. It features unflattering industrial areas, an enormous market place, a plaza de armas, rows of artesans selling the same brightly colored knitted goods (all baby alpaca of course, but now I know the real difference, and it usually involves quite a few more soles), knick knacks, and tourist friendly restaurants. The altitude is about 1000 feet higher than Cusco. Luckily bus travel helped me to acclimatize more quickly. The traffic is thick, unsightly, polluting both in exhaust and sound. The moto-taxis are a wonder, dodging cars left and right. My favorites have ironic decals on the back plastic windows. The coolest, they think they are bat-mobiles.

Julio, did not leave the islands until he was a young adult. His first experience in Puno, at age 11 was terrifying for him, he tells us. So many cars, and traffic. "And worst of all," he says, "people didn't look at you and say good morning." We also have felt this shift many times during our trip. Julio and Ruben both speak Aymara as their native language, but quickly learned Quechua and Spanish from family while growing up. Once in school, they learned English, and some French. Inter-island trade is the primary reason to leave your island, or group of islands. People from Uros bring fish and sea birds, often dried, to market to trade for potatoes, onions, and other vegetables that can be grown on the larger islands. I watched Ruben's family prepare the fish that his father had caught earlier that day and lay them out on wooden boards to dry. Uros has a matriarchal society, and while the structure is still somewhat of a mystery to me as to how it is organized with so many islands, it was clear who was in charge.

~Briana