Santa Maria Island is one of 50 or so islands that form the Uros Islands. The Uros were a pre-Inca society that started the idea of building and living on reed islands.
It's a tough lifestyle and only a couple hundred descendents remain on the islands.
I suspect the current generation growing up on the island (the little boy in the colourful outfit is an example) will be the last. If the reed islands remain inhabitated, it will purely be as a tourist show. It's almost at this point now.
After a couple hours in Uros, we return to the motor boat for the 5km trip back to Puno.
