

Uros Floating Islands (Islas Uros)
The 40-plus floating Uros Islands are perhaps the most photographed attraction on Lake Titicaca, famously constructed with springy totora reeds. The reeds are collected from around the shores of Lake Titicaca, and used to replenish the fragile islands every three months or so, as the bottom of the two-meter (6.5ft) totora mat slowly rots back into the lake. Thus, the islands change shape, size and even number as the centuries pass, anchored to the lake bottom but in many ways a completely separate world.
The Uros people are an ancient race, predating the Incas by millennia and, according to local legend, even the sun and stars. The “People of the Lake,” as they call themselves, once said that they did not feel the cold, thanks to their “black blood.” (The last full-blooded Uros woman died in 1959, after centuries of intermarriage with Aymaras and other races, so that claim is subject to some conjecture.)
Heavily taxed by the Incas and enslaved in the silver mines by the Spanish, the Uros have managed, through ingenuity and isolation, to outlast their tormentors with their unique culture largely in place. The key to their survival is the reeds, whose starchy tubers are consumed for food, flowers brewed to make tea, and stalks used for medicine, handicrafts, and the construction of gondolas, homes, schools, churches and just about everything else on the islands.
The islands change in size and number over the centuries and will quickly thin if not meticulously maintained. Tourism on the handful accessible to tourists is relatively open and you can arrange trips with several Puno travel agencies or even come on your own, in public boats that leave regularly from the Puno pier. The 5km (3mi) trip takes about thirty minutes.
The islands are part of Titicaca National Reserve which protects 37,000 hectares (143 square miles) of reed bed, including some 60 species of bird and 14 of fish, many collected by the Uros for meat, eggs, and as work animals, such as cormorants used to fish. You’ll also see plenty of domesticated cats, to keep mice from devouring the delicate islands.
While many of the Uros traditions have been maintained, the islands are by no means frozen in time. For example, they no longer speak their original language, having switched to Aymara after centuries of trade and intermarriage, and have more recently embraced technology, such as electrical generators, modern motors on reed boats and so forth.
Tourism has brought money and opportunity to the islands, which cuts into time once spent doing traditional activities, such as the all-important collection of totora. They are savvy enough to know their time’s worth, so expect to be charged for photos and/or offered handicrafts with a cheerfully hard sell.
Tours and tickets to Experience Uros Floating Islands (Islas Uros)
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Uros and Taquile Islands on Fast Boat

Full Day Tour Uros and Taquile Islands

Full-Day Tour of Uros, Taquile and Sillustani from Puno

Uros Amantani Taquile Full Day tour

Lake Titicaca (Half Day) - Uros Island

Kayaking to the Uros + Isla De Taquile Veloz

Lake Titicaca (Day Trip) Uros&Taquile

Floating Island of the Uros

Tour Uros, Amantani, and Taquile Islands in 2 Days with Homestay in Amantani

Uros Kayaking and Taquile Island Day Tour

Lake Titicaca (2 Days)

Tour Uros and Taquile - normal boat

Tour Uros and Taquile in Speedboat (full day)

Kayaking to the Uros Floating Islands

Tour to the Remote Part of Uros and Taquile

Uros Amantani and Taquile Island 2 Day Tour from Puno

Half-Day Boating Tour to Uros from Puno

Kayaking Lake Titicaca

Full day Uros Taquile speed boat :PREMIUM SERVICE

Overnight on the Floating Island of Los Uros

Sleep on Uros Island

Full-Day Tour to the Floating Islands of Uros & Taquile Including Lunch

2-Day Tour Lake Titicaca from Cusco

Day Tour of the Uros Floating Islands and Taquile Island
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- Uros and Taquile Islands on Fast Boat
- Full Day Tour Uros and Taquile Islands
- Full-Day Tour of Uros, Taquile and Sillustani from Puno
- Uros Amantani Taquile Full Day tour
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