Not much ado about Puno

Crossing over the border into Peru, we arrived in the city of Puno.  There's not much to see or do in this city except the floating islands on Lake Titicaca, which is the only reason we stopped off there.

We did a morning tour out to the Uros islands, which are about a 30min boat ride out into Lake Titicaca from Puno and are at 3810m above sea level.  The Uros people originally created these islands as a defensive measure against attacks, as they could move them if a threat arose.  Quite ingenious really.  The islands themselves and the lifestyle of the people living on them are very interesting, although they did have a few more modern conveniences than back in the day such as TV's and solar panels. 

The islands (and pretty much everything on them - boats, beds, houses, furniture) are made out of totora reeds which grow in the lake.  These plants have very dense roots which weave together to form a natural layer about 1-2 metres thick that support the islands.  Then layers of reeds are added to the top.  However, because the reeds at the bottom of the islands rot away pretty quickly, new reeds have to be added to the top about every 3 months.  It was a cool feeling to walk around the islands, kind of like walking on a sponge.  Walking on the reeds breaks them up more though which lets moisture in and rots them, so more and more layers have to be added.  So unfortunately, with the increased tourism on the islands it means they have to do a lot more work to maintain them.  A necessary evil.

We visited a couple of islands and walked around on them, and one lady invited us into her house to see how they live.  As I said, basically everything is made out of these totora reeds - the house itself, the bed and any other furniture.  It was a tiny little hut, but it's obviously all they need.  There were only 2 or 3 families living on the smaller island we visited, but larger islands can house up to 10 families.  Although they do have TV's now, one thing they still maintain tradition with is the toilet system.  Whenever someone needs to use the toilet they have to jump in a boat and row across to an 'outhouse' island, where the ground root absorbs the waste.  Guess it's too bad if you have an emergency!

While it was interesting to visit the islands and see how they make them and have a chance to walk on them, it has clearly become a total tourist trap now.  Most people have moved to the mainland so the only families still living on the islands are there to make money from tourism.  They make arts and crafts which you get urged to by when you're on the islands, and they sing and dance as you leave on the boat.  It's a very staged experience which we hate, but I guess if it means their tradition still lives on for a while, why not?