Los Uros

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The first time I came to Puno I decieded that I did not want to see Los Uros. Aren´t they just a bunch of floating tourist shops, no?

But this time however, I had a morning to kill before I caught a collectivo to the boader.

So I thought I would drift out there and think of it as a trip to a museo, complete with actors.

The fist Isla we visited was the most interesting as the "local" gave us the root of the weed they use to make the island from to eat. It didn´t really have any flavour. The locals themselves no longer eat the stuff either, they get all their food from Puno. Bascially the locals work on some sort of rotation- a few weeks on, a few weeks off, so the islas are completely fake. There are some other floating islas that are closed to tourists, which exist solely beceause some peruvians don´t want the culture to die out completely.
We also ate some island bread which is just like eating batter without the fish.

Then I shelled out 5 sol to ride in a "traditional" reed boat to the next isla. Even the boats aren´t real, as they are filled with plastic coke bottles and covered with plastic sheeting, and given a skin of reed to make them look like reed boats.
Basically, I took the boat ride soley to get off the island. I was so bored and did not want to buy any of the blankets that the locals were selling.

The next two islands looked exactly like the first and there was nothing to do there exept look at blankets or model reed boats. We were basically shipped there to buy stuff.

Thankfully the tour only lasted two hours; anymore and I would have swum back to Puno.

So I took a collectivo to the boader, but for the final three Ks, I got a kid to cycle me there in his little cart (although he walked half the way), soley to say I´d done it. It was a lot more expensive, but I got to ride out off Peru sitting in the late afternoon sun, looking at the lake, relaxing, while this kid busted his gut pushing me and my gainantic pack up a slight hill.

As a note for travelers: The buses to Copacabana only go at 6.45am, so you can´t see the uros and then bus there the same day. You could take a taxi to the boarder at a cost of $25 U.S, which is just silly(Some tourists in my hostel in Copacabana, did that the same day I did, but still didn´t make it to the boader before it closed and had to pay 25sol to cross). But you can visit the islands in the morning and take a collectivo to the boarder for 5 sol from calle bolivar.

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Photos

Puno
from the boat to the Uros

The wellcoming party egerly
lined up like little children expecting candy

A local cooking
up island bread

The reed boat
complete with cokebottle eyes

A boy being
droped home from island school

Where the locals really live
and not those little reed contsructions they invite the tourists into

Island telephone
I think we installed one of these models at Roskill Grammer