Islas Flotantes - Uros

Yesterday morning we went to the Floating Islands of lake Titikaka (we learned "Titi" means "puma" and "kaka" means "rock" - ouuu, ahh, what a wealth of information, I know). The Uros people made and moved to these islands in the time of the Inca, but according to our guide a big reason for staying on them was to avoid having to work in the inhuman silver mines in Potosi (Bolivia) in the time of the Spanish Conquistadors. The islands are made up of reeds that grow on the lake. The Uros people harvest the reeds "roots" (about 1.5 m deep) and pile another 2 m of cut up reeds on top, giving the islands a depth of 3.5 m (the water around there is about 15 m deep). Walking on the islands is pretty funny, very spongy and I was glad to hear they´re are deep as they are because it feels like, if you stomped, you would punch right through and end up with a foot in the lake. About 10 families live on each island, living off of fish, water fowl and the white parts of the roots (which is probably similar to sugar cane). The islands are tied to wooden pillars, but they´re untied and move around the lake each year (pulled by motorboats). They make these cool reed boats each fashioned with a puma head at the front - I think Phil took half a film of just the boats! Some of the heads used the bottom of pop bottles as eyes, really cool. The tour was pretty good, though the guide wasn´t great and the last two islands were just places to buy handicrafts (needless to say, we all came away empty handed). There was also this hilarious museum that had a collection of poorly taxodermied birds with their eyes rotting out - another classic example of non-first world museums. One of the little girls on the first island took quite a shine to Jon´s sunglasses and wore them around for about 30 minutes, getting her sticky hands all over the lenses. Cute. I hope everyone is well! Andrea