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Uros harvesting some Totora on Lake Titicaca nearby the city of Puno.

Uros island

Uros is a group of 42 floating islets located in Lake Titicaca off Puno, Peru as well as to the pre-Inca people who fashioned them. The Uro originally created these artificial islands to escape the Inca, who dominated the mainland at the time; today they are best known as a major tourist destination.

Around 3,000 descendants of the Uros are alive today, although only a few hundred still live on and maintain the islands; most have moved to the mainland. The Uro also bury their dead on the mainland.

The purpose of the island settlements was originally defensive, and if a threat arose they could - with difficulty - be moved. The largest island retains a watchtower almost entirely constructed of reeds.

The Uro traded with the Aymara tribe on the mainland, interbreeding with them and eventually abandoning the Uro language for that of the Aymara.

The islets are made of totora reeds, which grow in the lake. The dense roots that the plants develop support the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top to compensate. The islands last about 30 years.

The larger islands house about 10 families, while smaller ones, only about 30 meters wide, house only two or three.

Uros island

Local residents fish, and hunt birds and graze their cattle on the islets. They also run crafts stalls aimed at the numerous tourists who land on ten of the islands each year.

Food is cooked with fires placed on piles of stones. To relieve themselves, tiny 'outhouse' islands are near the main islands. The waste is dried in the sun to avoid polluting the water.

• The Uros People at GlobalAmity.net
• Video presentation by a tour guide