Photo: Bruce Tuten Savannah / Flickr

It’s a living situation unlike any other.The Uros, a pre-Incan people in Peru, reside on artificial islands built out of totora reeds in Lake Titicaca. The manmade islands have been a major tourist attraction ever since photographs of the Uros were first published in National Geographic in the 1940s.



Though it doesn’t seem like it at first glance, life on the islands has changed drastically since tourism came to Lake Titicaca. Not only have the Uros lost their original language, they now earn most of their income through tourism and even use solar electricity to sustain TVs, radios, and lights in their homes.

This juxtaposition of the old and new is part of the reason tourists flock to the floating islands — or “Islas Flotantes” — in the first place.

Flickr user Bruce Tuten was fortunate enough to visit the Uros in 2011 and shared his photographs of the unforgettable day trip with us.

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