Urso Islands

After leaving Cusco, I headed south to Puno, the port city on the
Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. The city didn't offer much - it was
small, suffered from a malodorous lagoon, and was overcrowded - but
the trip to the lake made it worthwhile.

I took a two-day tour of the lake; the first stop was a floating Urso
"island" built out of reeds. The Urso culture pre-dates the Incas in
Peru, and they were notoriously isolationist. Rather than allow
themselves to be assimilated by the Incas, they left their original
homes on the banks of the lake and built boats, houses, and civic
buildings out of floating reeds, then left land behind. Today, they
still live on these small floating islands, but are much less focused
on isolation - they subsist primarily by giving tours of their homes
and selling crafts to tourists.