It's sad, floating island.

The people who live on the floating islands use to live on land, but their ancestors move onto Lake Titicaca to avoid the Inca invasion. They successfully utilized the local water growing plants roots to provide a base for their self made floating islands then use the top of the plants to provide bedding for comfort. They have to constantly replace the leaves and roots to avoid rotting and sinking. They have straw houses, simple straw boats for everyday use and double decker straw boats for guests. Each island has a "president" who is in charge of the survival of the island. The presidents get together to decide on important matters. Now, they are not able to return to land due to lack of financial resources. The rumour is that some of them do live on land but work on the islands to provide an income through tourism. 

Prior to my visit, lots of people have told me that it was not a good experience. One said "they just want to extract more money from you". I can understand the support they need however it seems as though its gone a bit far. They have all the female members make mini straw boats and hand crafts to sell to visitors. The elders would perform grain grinding, which would cost for taking photos. The kids were instructed to take photos with the tourists then ask for money or run around the island to sell postcards. They offer you to see their homes, wear their traditional clothes, and ride the guest straw boat all for additional prices...

It's sad and upsetting to see a unique culture badly commercialized. It would be much more interesting to observe the reality but it was too focused on tourism that the experience turned insincere. When the tourism exhaust and the reputation, their lives will become difficult and the unique culture will be further damaged. Besides feeling pity and sad, I watched floating island cat scheme around.