Peru is home to approximately 2,000 Uros people. Around 1,200 still live on the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. Harvested from vast beds that grow in abundance on the lake, the humble totora plant forms the backbone of Uros life. Homes, boats, and the islands themselves are all made of totora reeds.

A floating island is a mass of floating aquatic plants, mud, and peat ranging in thickness from several centimeters to a few meters. Floating islands are a common natural phenomenon that are found in many parts of the world. They exist less commonly as an artificial phenomenon.

At one time there were about 2,000 people living on the Floating Islands in Lake Titicaca. Now there are only 7 inhabited islands on the Peru side of the lake (variations exist on the Bolivia side) and each island has between 22 to 45 people living on it.

The Uros people have a unique housing situation which involves them building their own islands to live on using the lake's reeds. Using layers of dried totora reeds, they weave them together to create islands that are strong enough to stand on, but light enough to float.