this morning i drove to puno, the small port town on lake titicaca. i quickly hopped on a boat which took me to visit a few of their floating islands (built by the uros tribe). the islands are actually very neat: comfortable, pretty, simple and a cool engineering feat. what’s really impressive is how sturdy they feel…i was expecting them to rock around like a dock, but they’re actually very stable; and comfortable too….one kid was doing flips and landing on the soft reed floor.
the islands are probably about 30m x 30m (or less) and made from a stack of 2-3 meters of reeds (plus dirt); they are then tied down to the lake bottom so they don’t float away and accidentally start a war with bolivia. some islands have holes in the middle to farm fish, while others have hostels and schools. the majority of the construction is from reeds, although wood and metal are finding there ways onto the islands (along with a couch in the hostel). one interesting thing about the reed roofs, is that they apparently swell up when it rains…thus creating a water-tight seal (or so they claim). reeds are also grown on the islands (the island is living), so that it is more or less self-sustaining (every year they place down a new layer of reeds). they also make boats from the reeds….one boat takes a couple weeks to make and lasts from 1.5 – 3 years (depending on if a plastic tarp is used in the construction of the reed floats). i was also surprised that there weren’t many bugs on the islands; after all, they seem like a pretty good place for decaying vegetable matter and insects (reeds + water + sunlight).
overall, the idea is really elegant and seems environmentally sustainable — probably one of the most exciting systems i’ve seen yet (even more elegant than the panama canal).
but now for some downers. first, although people ‘live’ on the islands, they survive entirely off of tourism. the islands themselves are built and maintained for tourists (some of the islands were built as recently as 2000). also, on my boat, i think there were some uros pretending to be tourists…and buying little trinkets at all the islands, then showing them off in hopes that we would buy stuff too. also, as patrik warned me, the boat tour lasts a bit too long….they kinda trap you on the islands so you’ll buy stuff. finally, i don’t like to publish criticisms….but contrary to what everybody’s said about peru, i’m ready to leave (…well at least the highlands region).
as a side note, this evening my car is residing in the high school stadium parking lot….which also happens to be next to ‘singer’ alley (seriously, 8 identical little carts with beautiful singer sewing machines).
