Uros Islands

Acrylic on panel

16″ x 24″

Featured in the Curio Card Club

Up in the Altiplano of Peru where the air is cold and thin, a great lake supports an unusual way of life. In various creation myths of the region, Lake Titicaca is the birthplace of the universe. It makes life in the arid, harsh plateau possible, modulating temperature swings, and providing sustenance to the people, brids, and fish, who have called it home for centuries. The Uros inhabited the shores before the arrival of the Inca. As the empire expanded into the region, the Uros knew they could not defend their territory. The fashioned the prevalent totora reeds into floating islands and headed to the center of the lake, where they lived until the 1980s.