What an amazing place! The Uros islands are a group of some 40 artificial floating islands on Lake Titicaca, made entirely of totora reeds. It takes a year to build an island: the Uros would seek out large blocks of totora reed roots (which is up to 2m deep), and string them together, and anchor them into the ground (some 20ms down) with eucalyptus trunks. Then they would layer them with totora reeds, criss-crossing each intermittent layer. A fresh layer of reeds need to be laid once a month in the rainy season, and twice a month in the dry season. The lifespan of an island is about 20 years.

Their houses, beds, boats and other daily utensils are made entirely of totora reeds; and they feed the inner flesh of the reeds to kids - we had a taste of it, and it is quite nice, rather like celery, only less crunchy.