PUBLICADO EN LIVING IN PERU

HOW ARE TITICACA’S FLOATING ISLANDS CREATED?

By Ermelinda Maglione in Living in Peru, on MAY 29, 2018

https://www.livinginperu.com/how-are-titicacas-floating-islands-created/

Titicaca is the best-known Peruvian tourist attraction after Machu Picchu.

The Uros are a very particular town, located between Bolivia and Peru on Lake Titicaca. What makes them so particular is the fact that the people live on floating islands, built by hand by the inhabitants themselves.

“They make them with totora, a kind of junk that they use both to make their rafts and houses and for eating”, BBC wrote. “They owe their lives to water, which for centuries protected them from the great conquerors of the area: the Incas and the Spaniards”, they continue.

Since the Uros can take anything they need to survive and make a living from the lake, it’s an escape from poverty to them. However, many of the inhabitants devote themselves to tourism and have opened hotels and restaurants.

“They try to take advantage of its uniqueness and its location. Titicaca is the best-known Peruvian tourist attraction after Machu Picchu. It receives 750,000 visitors every month”, according to BBC.

This media assures that there are more than a hundred floating islands on Lake Titicaca that make up the Uros Chulluni Village Center. Currently, more than 3,500 families live there.

The BBC has developed a video about the current situation with Titicaca’s floating islands, where they address issues such as conflicts that come from imitators who try to attract tourists.