The Uros: floating world

For: Daniel Landa

We left the port of Puno as one leaves the world of the living in search of a leaf water and floating islands more than 4.000 meters above sea level. Lake Titicaca is the spell of unlikely places. Nor imagination site reaches as high, so blue and mystical if not to think of the gates of heaven. But there we were, still alive, soaring forests of reeds.

The reed is a reed extraordinary. It grows on the surface water reaches bravely. Thousands of green reeds erect and decorate the paths of ships. But when the plant dies, the lake comes to life and the world turns yellow: men's boats, houses that sweep women, the baskets, the menu and to the ground beneath their feet is made up of thousands of dry reeds, by the endless reed lake gushing. Tons of reeds giant cake to form platforms that create islands called Aymara: The Uros.

Nor imagination site reaches as high, so blue and mystical if not to think of the gates of heaven

They, Titicaca indigenous colored dress to combat gold routine. No matter if you go fishing from the Bolivian side or from Peru. All share the same skin burned by the sun sharp, the same look without excess, the same rate of its islands. Neither the centuries have changed their boats or their black braids. But maybe that picture is just a fiction timeless, a decoration yellow to captivate tourists. The Uros are a large eccentricity. The boatmen have some theatrical and souvenirs, the miniature houses of reeds or colored pendants are part of the illusion.

We also are seduced by the water maze and mobile villages. We arrived at the islands as who takes the first step on the lunar surface. The soil is so soft that helped create that dreamlike feeling. Even walking was soft, unreal. And beyond mountains, even higher than the highest navigable lake in the world. It was all part of a story, ¿Actors with ponchos, decorated impossible, islands floating? For a small fee, wanders abroad surreal an archipelago where nothing is true.

Maybe that picture is just a fiction timeless, a decoration yellow to captivate tourists.

But then came the children who do not understand artifice. They sleep with pillows of reeds, they chew plants, come to school on rafts vegetables and even your look and I found a little yellow. Dozens of families live in Los Uros. The reed is sacred to the Aymara and the Creeds not negotiated. The truth is that I care little if the Uros are a lucrative invention or not. There was a time when the peoples of the highlands were traveling in boats made of reeds, a time creative, where reeds lake filled with light. Maybe they have nothing to offer to tourists or they may want to rescue the magic of those days.

 

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Comments (7)

  • Judith Ofelia Benevente Salas

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    Awesome God Wonders Jobs

    Answer

  • Lydia

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    It does provide some sense of movie set, but it would still be an attractive place.
    When children are, I wonder who passes it better, if they or you.

    Answer

  • Igor

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    Felicidades por vuestro trabajo. It's nice to see that with a bit of respect for cultures and nature, the stories come more to the bottom of our hearts.
    A hug

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  • Mayte

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    Yesterday we enjoyed this episode. Impressive Machu Pichu, Nazca, the flamingos, the hot springs…and meanwhile I writing ,…and, flamingos again! (and my spelling).With ep chapter of Bolivia, Peru…I definitely have conquered.

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  • June Carlos

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    I loved the documentary South America. Lo he been searching the internet to see volverlo but it with you. I would like Verlo otra vez. Are you possible? Luck and thank him for program. Soy one enamored of South America.

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