Isla Estoves

That was quick :-) we are already on the bus to Bolivia and spent only a half day (06:00-14:00 o’clock) on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca in Puno. It was a better than expected experience to visited the floating Uros islands. Let us explain!

We had read that visiting the families living on these islands constructed from reed feels a bit like a “human zoo” as shiploads of tourists are brought on an Uros Island and then subjected to seeing how the people live and afterwards possibly buying their handcrafts.

Our experience was a better one though, likely due to our ability to speak some Spanish. To begin with, we learned that a third of the ticket price was going to the community directly which was good in our opinion. After reaching “our” island called “Summa Willtja”, we were giving an introduction to the building technique by our guide and the island’s leader using a small model - really interesting and well done! Then each woman of the six families living on “our” island introduced herself and offered to show her house to some of us. We went with Maria and had a good conversation. For example, we learned that they are visited only once per week and all 90 islands take rotations to get tourists. In the meantime they work on handcrafted tapestries and reed figures - her grandparents were still fishermen but she said that there were now too few fish left to make a living from that, thus, they concentrate on tourism. In order to get food (apart from fishing for themselves and eating, yes, eating the reed - Bertram tried it as well and says it tastes like apple) they exchange some fish or money from tourism on the local market in Puno). We also learned that she has 2 kids who go to school on the school island Monday to Friday. We were then shown some of her work but did not buy anything due to our luggage restrictions :-)

All in all, it is of course a touristy experience and, as Maria said herself, if it weren’t for the tourists, they would not live there anymore. However, it was great to have a conversation with them and be able to see how they cope with daily problems - and, for example, see their pride in having a new modern roof with 2 layers of reed and 1 layer of plastic in between. :-)
In contrast to the Kogi indigenous people in Colombia, they were not just begging for sweets and posing for pictures. We are still wondering what to ultimately wish for as preservation of these cultures is really interesting, but it may keep people at a lower living standard. No easy answer...Read more