The floating reed villages of Lake Titicaca must be on your list of places to visit when planning a trip to Peru or Bolivia.
Lake Titicaca is South America’s largest lake and the world’s highest navigable body of water at 3812m. We took a 1.5 hours boat ride from Puno to visit the famous Uros floating reed village.
Co-incidentally I had just learnt about this place on a visit to the Kon-tiki museum in Oslo (arguably my favourite museum in the world) a year before. Our local guide Manuel told us that Thor Heyerdahl was actually there some decades ago to study how to build the reed boat.
Created entirely with the buoyant totora reeds that grow abundantly in the lake, the lives of the Uros people are interwoven with these reeds. They constantly have to replenish the islands with the reeds from the top as they rot from the bottom.
I loved being on the Uros floating village which are constructed from many layers of the totora reeds. My first few steps on the island felt a bit scary because your feet sort of sink just a little. The ground felt soft and springy.
The furniture in their houses were also made of reed and were really comfortable. I wanted a reed bed.
I climbed a little ladder to get a view of the little island of 6 families (65 floating islands altogether) and fell on the way down and hurt my knee all over again. What luck.
We then went on a reed boat for 5 Soles each for about 20 minutes before going back on our boat where we had bread with lots of avocado, cheese, mayonnaise, cucumber and tomatoes for lunch. We were back in Puno before we knew it.
The floating reed villages of Lake Titicaca until today is one of the best day trips I have ever done.
Click ahead for more stories on my adventures in Peru, Bolivia and the rest of South America.
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