Classroom Resources

Teach Through Educational Travel: Uros Island Village, Peru

Can you imagine living on a floating island? One that you have to maintain (read: repair) by hand, to bolster the safety of your home? Welcome to the floating islands of the Uros people. Located on Lake Titicaca, in Peru, the floating islands of the Uros are an ingenious way of utilizing natural resources for daily living. The islands are part of Titicaca National Reserve. The Uros consider themselves guardians of the lake, and are a pre-Incan civilization. About 2,000 Uros still live on the floating islands, while the rest have moved to the mainland.

• Watch these videos about the Uros and their Floating Islands: short video or long video
•  Can you imagine living on a floating island that you have to keep repairing? How much time do you think you’d need to work on your home, every day? Would you be willing to spend that much time on maintaining your home? Would tourism income influence your decisions?
• Small cultures have made many contributions to global exploration, development, and the ease of daily life. Read this article about the Uros people throughout history. Discuss how the Uros people helped discover Oceania, and how their knowledge can be used in the world today.
• Tourism is definitely changing the way of life for the Uros. It not only provides them with a new means to earn a living, but it also makes the islands deteriorate more quickly, due to increased traffic. Read this article about tourism on the Uros Islands and then discuss the ramifications of tourism on small native cultures. Do you think that tourism has “Disney-fied” the Uros Floating Islands?