On Lake Titicaca there are about 60 floating reed islands; 40 of which support and are supported by tourism and the other 20 which don’t because they’ve chosen that life. The reed islands are made out of floating reed roots and reeds stalks and they each hold about 4-6 families. To make the base they lash together chunks of root with string, and then they make layers of reeds on top. The root is usually about 3 feet thick and then the layers of reeds make up another 3 feet approximately. This means that the islands are a total of 6 feet deep floating on 45 feet of water. The people on the islands then go on to make houses boats out of dried reeds. Almost every family has a solar panel on there roof that they use to get electricity.
For food they eat the fish from the lake, the birds and the eggs of the birds. To get other things like sugar, flour and fruits they will go to Puno and sell their fish for money to buy other things or they will go to the peninsula and barter for other supplies. The people on the islands also make money from tourism. The men make mini reed boats and the women make tapestries. The women want you to believe that they make all the tapestries by hand but when you see that another women is offering you the exact same one its hard to believe that they are all hand made. It amazes me how these people have taken the resources available and made a life out of it. -Sinclair
1 comment:
amazing! the kind of thing you could never imagine unless you saw first-hand. thanks for sharing this.
makes you realize how little we actually need to get by; all of the necessities start to seem decadent.
did you get a chance to board one of the islands?
noah
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