The Totora Boat

The Uru use bundles of dried Totora reeds to make reed boats (balsas), and to make the islands themselves. The larger islands house about ten families, while smaller ones, only about thirty meters wide, house only two or three families.

The islets are made of multiple natural layers harvested in Lake Titicaca: The base is made of large pallets of floating Totora roots, which are tied together with ropes and covered in multiple layers of totora reeds. These dense roots that the plants develop and interweave form a natural layer called Khili (about one to two meters thick), which are the main flotation and stability devices of the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to large Eucalyptus poles driven into the bottom of the lake. Said blocks used to be harvested with Eucalyptus wedges but are now sourced using 1.5m long metal saws custom made for this purpose.