Uros

Information about the Uros

Uros refers to a group of about 40 floating islets located in Lake Titicaca off Puno, Peru as well as to the pre-Inca people who fashioned them. The Uros originally created the islands to escape the Inca, who dominated the mainland at the time.

There are around 3,000 descendants of the Uro alive today. Only a few hundred still live on and maintain the islands; most have moved to the nearby, more modern mainland. The children visit the mainland to go to school. The Uro also bury their dead on the mainland.

The Uro traded with the Aymara tribe on the mainland, interbreeding with them and eventually abandoning the Uro language for that of the Aymara.

Food is cooked with fires placed on piles of stones. To relieve themselves, tiny 'outhouse' islands are near the main islands. The waste is dried in the sun to avoid polluting the water, as they drink it.

The islets are made of totora reeds, which grow in the lake. The residents use the reeds to create the conditions that ensure the islands stay afloat. The dense roots that the plants develop support the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top to compensate. The islands last about 30 years.

The larger islands house about 10 families, while smaller ones, only about 30 meters wide, house only two or three.

Local residents fish, and hunt birds and graze their cattle on the islets. They also run crafts stalls aimed at the numerous tourists who land on ten of the islands each year.

The above includes excerpts from Wikipedia.org, the free encyclopedia:

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