The floating Islands of Uros are located on Lake Titicaka in Peru. The islands were first made by the Iruito people when they were escaping the Incans. The people went out into Lake Titcaka and took the roots from the reeds that were there and cut large blocks of them. Then they put cut reeds on top of the roots to make a soft surface. Once they had the ground, they built houses and boats out of the reeds. By having a floating home, they were able to stay away from the Incans.

We stayed on one of the islands with a family for two nights. The family had one cat named Princessa and a daughter named Sarae. Our island home was yellow because it was made of reeds. It was really hard to walk around because there were so many layers of reeds that your feet sank into the ground. Our room was made out of reeds on the outside and it had a tin roof with reeds on the top. Even one of our beds was sitting on a reed mattress.

The first night we were there during a storm and our whole room moved with the wind. My dad and I climbed up the tower on the island and we looked out over the lake. In the distance were the thunderstorms and the lightning lit up the sky. Those were the storms that hit us later in the night.

Each day people got around the islands by motorboats. They even go to school by motorboats. Sometimes our island moved when the waves from the boats come by.  It was only about 10 years ago that they started using motorboats. Before that they used reed boats to get around. The reed boats have a Puma at the front. They have some reed boats that are very large with a house in the middle and they call these their “Mercedes Benz.”

We went out on a tour with a local man on one of the reed boats. He taught us how to cut the reeds down and we learned that the reeds can be edible. We ate the very bottom of the reed and it tasted like lettuce. He called them Bananas de Lago. We also went on his motorboat to his island where he taught us how they built the islands and he took on a tour to the schools, church, hospital, and restaurants, which were each their own island. Later that day we learned how to sew and I really liked that. Sewing in their style was really fun. My dad learned how to make a miniature version of their reed boats.