The floating homes of Lake Titicaca

by techlowdown · 15 August 2022

Created by the indigenous Uros people as protection against attacks from the Incas, the Uros Islands are one of the world’s most innovative feats of human engineering.

In 2011, Peruvian-American artist Grimanesa Amorós stepped off a boat made of totora reeds onto an island – also made of totora reeds – in the north-west portion of Lake Titicaca. The world’s highest navigable body of water sits about 3,810m above sea level in the Andes Mountains and is shared by Peru and Bolivia. It’s also home to one of the world’s most innovative feats of human engineering: the Uros Islands.

The man-made floating islets, which are home to the indigenous Uros people, are created by stacking layers upon layers of totora roots and reeds. This water-resistant plant grows in the lake and is the lifeblood of the Uros community: it is used to make boats, houses, roofs, mattresses and more. The plant is also eaten (playfully called the “lake banana”) and applied as medicine, and its flowers are used to make tea.

“There was something very haunting and appealing about this wide array of creation from a single material,” said Amorós, whose art often draws inspiration from Peruvian cultural legacies and communities.

However, the Uros weren’t always dependent on the totora – that adaptation was spurred from necessity. More than 500 years ago, the growing Inca Empire began to encroach on the Uros’ mainland villages. To combat this threat, the Uros began to build the islands, which could be launched deep into Titicaca, away from danger. Hundreds of years later, there are now about 120 of these constructed islands, with around 1,300 people living on them.

The floating islands are created by stacking layers of totora roots and reeds (Credit: Glowimages/Getty Images)

Despite their uniqueness, the Uros Islands are not usually at the top of tourist itineraries, often overshadowed by the wonders of Macchu Picchu and the Nazca Lines. Amorós was raised in Lima, but she only heard about the islands during the decades she spent living outside her home country. But she was so inspired by her visit that she used her next public installation – a commission for New York’s renowned Armory Show – to highlight the Uros. Staged in New York’s Times Square in 2011, Uros House is a light-fixture depicting a traditional Uros structure made of totora.

Although I grew up with a Peruvian mother, I too had not heard of the Uros Islands, which are located just 5km from the mainland city of Puno, until researching for a backpacking trip in 2016. Later that year, I took a boat from Puno to visit the islands, where I marvelled at their simple ingenuity that lives on to this day. The innovation begins with the islands’ most basic, and vital, components: the totora root and reed.

The plant is remarkably strong and pliable, and has been used in construction in the area for centuries. In a 2002 study, Alexei Vranich, archaeology professor at the University of Warsaw, investigated its strength first-hand by setting out to recreate a hypothetical voyage across Titicaca along with sailor Paul Harmon. Their objective was to see if the massive stones on one side of the lake could have been transported across it using a large boat made solely of totora reeds. His study focused on the Aymara, a different indigenous group in the area, whose uses of totora in boat building are almost identical to the Uros. The voyage was successful, strengthening the belief that totora reed boats were a common method of transporting heavy material in past centuries.

Remarkably strong and pliable, totora is the lifeblood of the Uros community (Credit: Temmuzcan/Getty Images)

“The structure of the totora is cellular. It’s a very hearty, stable material that’s also flexible but prevents kinking,” explained Vranich. “People often used to make skis with just a single piece of wood. Nowadays, they replicate the interior form of a cross-section of totora.”

To build the islands, each of which is home to two to six families, the Uros first gather large blocks of totora roots, which often float to the surface during the rainy season. Multiple blocks are pulled together, and the roots and reeds mix naturally to form a layer about 1-2m thick, called khili.

To harvest the totora reed, which is laid on top of this floating base, the Uros use a long scythe-like tool to reach deep down into the water and cut the plant above the base. Then, the reeds are dried in the sun for one to four weeks and bundled together using a nylon rope. In the past, the Uros used totora in place of the rope, but since it deteriorated quickly, the modern switch was made. Once dried, totora reeds are placed in alternating directions on top of the root blocks and become the ground that the Uros walk and build their homes on.

To make sure the islands do not drift away, eucalyptus rods are stuck into the bottom of the lake as anchors and are tied to the root blocks using rope. Every 15 to 20 days, the totora reeds rot and need to be replenished with fresh ones. It’s a laborious, endless cycle that is essential to the islands and the Uros’ survival on them. “What struck me the most was how the islands and homes are in a constant state of flux, of creation and decay,” said Amorós. “This ephemerality is magical.”

There are around 120 floating islands, with around 1,300 people living on them (Credit: Santiago Urquijo/Getty Images)

While most Uros know the basics of the reed replenishment process, some men specialise in the craft and specifically harvest totora to sell to other members. Given that the Uros’ existence is water-based, boats are essential for any trip to the mainland or a neighbouring island, or for hunting, fishing and guiding tourists. While these days some Uros use motorised boats, many vessels are still built traditionally using totora reed.

“If there was no totora, there would be no islands,” said Nelson Colia Lujano, an Uros man who served as the community’s elected president last year. He told me that when he was a child, the Uros people were based on three principal islands much farther out in the lake. Lujano grew up on one of them, called Santa Maria, with his grandmother and her 12 children. “It was big enough for us kids to even play football,” he said.

But things changed drastically in 1986 when a massive storm hit Titicaca. “They told us it was because that’s when Haley’s Comet passed. The same way the Earth opens during an earthquake, our islands broke open during the storm,” Lujano said. “The adults put all of the kids on one of the totora boats to protect us. The wind from the north was so strong that it took whole islands, and even our school, to the Bolivian side of the lake. We lost those islands for good.”

Totora reeds are also used to make the Uros’ traditional boats, which are used for fishing, hunting and guiding tourists (Credit: Traveler1116/Getty Images)

The storm was a turning point for the community. They decided to relocate closer to Puno and this new proximity to the Peruvian mainland eventually shifted the Uros’ source of livelihood from fishing to tourism – selling artisanal crafts and showing visitors the Uros’ way of life.

“Before, almost none of the island Uros had been to the city, but now you could come and go so easily,” said Lujano, explaining that the community started to interact much more frequently with the mainland.

Today, urban influences are evident on the islands: solar panels power bedroom lights and small TVs; a radio station operates on the main island; and Uros offer their homes or private hospedajes (lodges) on Airbnb. But visitors will still be able to learn about the traditional lifestyle and construction methods – though that has been changing over the years as the islands cater more and more to tourists.

“Traditional ways of life can become corrupted [as some people] may leave their islands if they no longer feel comfortable or can no longer make a living in their traditional way,” said Rachel Dodds, former director of the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Toronto Metropolitan University who co-published a paper about tourism on Lake Titicaca.

Now the islands are closer to the Peruvian mainland, the Uros are welcoming tourists and selling artisanal crafts (Credit: Hadynyah/Getty Images)

While fewer visitors have been coming to the islands in recent years due to the pandemic, Lujano hopes that more people will come to take a walk on the floating islands for themselves. He told me that Puno’s government still does not fully appreciate how vital the Uros and their islands are to the city’s touristic draw. However, that may change soon: “They already have called us from Lima, saying that we’re in the process of becoming an official wonder of the world,” he said.

Whether or not that happens, it’s evident that these modern changes and tourism have altered the Uros’ life on the lake. One thing remains certain, though: as long as there is totora growing at Lake Titicaca, the islands’ rooted foundation will stay the same.

Heritage Architecture is a BBC Travel series that explores the world’s most interesting and unusual buildings that define a place through aesthetic beauty and inventive ways of adapting to local environments.

—

Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called “The Essential List”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

This article was originally published by Bbc.com. Read the original article here.