How does the growing arrival of tourists affect a rather small community? There are many ways. We can let travel agencies, who quickly try to take over the growth in visits to certain destinations, monopolize the field and impose their conditions. Or we can try to manage this growth in tourism from the community itself, through its usual government mechanisms.

The case of Taquile island in Puno, Peru, is an interesting one. Since mid 70s, the number of visitors are increasingly rising, up to 50 thousands per year; barely 13% of them are peruvian. Obviously, such market has attracted many interests. The island’s community has tried to manage the subject. For instance, they’ve built their own ships and host tourists in their homes. But travel agencies try to get their share, and have negotiated with some island’s natives some agreements that benefit only a few, allowing to distribute among less. Even so, the inhabitants of Taquile insist on managing tourism, as you can read at this work made by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (on PDF format, spanish).

The case can be opposed to a close one: the Uros island. There, travel agencies have imposed their power a lot more effectively, and visits to each island are not defined by tourists themselves. It depends on the arrangements between tourism operators and natives. Since the islands are a lot closer to Puno and, hence, more visited, it has propelled a huge growth in the supply of handcrafts, which support most of the artificial island’s inhabitants living.

Anyways, and despite the fact that Taquiles island community itself has tried to manage tourism, certain inhabitants have received more than others, specially those whose homes are better located o have boats. However, the result is better than if agencies managed the whole market.

One thing, the UNDP paper has some argueable affirmations about the posibility of the increase in tourism making the inhabitants of the islands “lose their culture”, as if this one was independent of social and economic processes.

The floating islands of Lake Titicaca, created and maintained by the Uros for many centuries, are a must-see location for all the tourists that visit Puno at the south region of Peru. The tour takes about three hours, including the boat ride, and costs around 10 soles (three dollars) plus a 2 soles fee to enter the place. A visit to the Uros islands is one of the most interesting examples of “ethnic tourism”, which Dean McCannell talked about in his book The Tourist, in 1976.

Identity, in a tourist background, turns into another merchandise, able to be traded in the global market. Uros, practically, live thanks to the visits of tourists, to whom they try to sell -very insistently- their handcrafts, totora boat rides and even picture posings. In between, there are the agreements with tourism agencies which define which islands will be visited, depending on the agency. Although, since there are over 20 islands in total, it’s very unlikely to visit them all.
One of the most interesting things in these islands is that they’re entirely made of totora reeds, which abound in the zone. Despite this, the ‘ground’ is solid and it constitutes a base not only to uros homes but to landscape sightseeing places, small museums and, of course, crafts selling stands. Despite the excessive commercial environment in the area, the tour to these islands turns out to be really interesting, thanks to its original landscape. By the way, the local government of Puno usually inspectionates the islands so that they keep its totora ground in good conditions for tourism.

Now that I found a cyber cafe with a fast internet connection, here in Puno, and the PCs have USB ports, I am uploading some pictures, although I still have over 200 more, which for now I will store in a cd. Besides, I still have many more things left on Puno and the Uros islands, that I hope to write about in another post. But now, the bus to Cuzco is awaiting. I hope the road blocking in the Puno-Juliaca route will not affect us, otherwise I guess I will beat my own record on number of blocked roads in just 3 days.