Uru

…of an ancient people, the Uru, still live on floating mats of dried totora (a reedlike papyrus that grows in dense brakes in the marshy shallows). From the totora, the Uru and other lake dwellers make their famed balsas—boats fashioned of bundles of dried reeds lashed together that resemble the…

…live remnants of the ancient Uru people. Population is distributed mainly between the high páramos, where, except for a seminomad population of shepherds, the principal occupation is mining, and the lower narrow valleys, where the people practice agriculture. In Peru, mining is the most important human activity above 11,500 feet,…