Floating reed island of the Uro-Aymara on Lake Titicaca
Floating reed island of the Uro-Aymara on Lake Titicaca At 12,500 feet, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, the strong sun prevents it from freezing even in winter, covering 3210 sq miles and bordered by Peru to the North and Bolivia to the South. Lake Titicaca is the home to the Uro-Aymara Indians , consisting of indigenous Uru-Chipaya, Uru-Murato, and Uru-Iruito tribes, famous for living for close to 4000 years on reed islands made from ubiquitous totora reed ( Schoenoplectus californicus ssp. tatora ), a giant bulrush sedge known as chullu in the local Uro language. This is the same sort of bulrush used by the natives of Easter Island to build their sea worth boats, and what inspired Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), the Norwegian explorer and ethnographer, to work with Uros Indians in constructing large expedition reed boat Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 miles) across...