🌾 Totora: the floating grass
Lake Titicaca, Bolivian and Peruvian lagoons, the Andean marshes: these landscapes have been home for millennia to strange boats. No heavy wood, no metal. Only tightly bound bundles of reeds carrying men, women, children… and sometimes their dreams far beyond the shores.
Totora (Schoenoplectus californicus subsp. tatora) is an aquatic grass. It grows abundantly on the Andean highlands. But this simple reed has become one of the keys to ancient navigation.
🐟 Millennia of lake civilizations
Long before the Incas, the civilizations of Lake Titicaca (Tiwanaku, Collas, Uros) were already building totora balsas. The reed was not only for floating: it made it possible to build islands, houses, granaries, fishing nets.
These boats were used for fishing, trade, connecting villages, and maintaining the bond between people and water. The Uros still live today on their floating islands of totora and continue this tradition.
For these peoples, totora is not just a material: it is a sacred plant. It protects, feeds, transports, heals.
🛠️ Ancestral know-how
Building a balsa requires patience and experience.
The reeds are harvested, dried, sorted. They are then assembled into twisted bundles, tied with natural ropes. Several bundles are gathered to form the hull.
Knowledge is passed down orally, through gestures. Every detail matters: weight, symmetry, angle of the fibers.
🌍 Totora, papyrus, rushes… a universal story
Totora balsas are not alone in human history. Wherever water and reeds meet, humans have invented boats of grass.
- Ancient Egypt: Nile papyrus carried pharaohs and fishermen.
- Mesopotamia: bitumen-coated reed boats on the Tigris and Euphrates.
- North Africa: woven rush mats shaped as boats.
- Pacific Islands: vegetal rafts.
These techniques, though distant in space, are surprisingly similar. Proof that simplicity and the intelligence of natural materials know no borders.
🚢 Modern expeditions reconnecting with the past
In the 1970s, explorer Thor Heyerdahl built the famous Ra II, a papyrus boat, to cross the Atlantic from Morocco to the Caribbean. The goal? To prove that pre-Columbian contacts were possible via these primitive boats.
More recently, other projects have emerged:
- Viracocha, an Andean balsa for the Pacific Ocean.
- Tangaroa, a raft inspired by Polynesians and Andeans.
- Kon-Tiki II, an attempt to return to America by rowing.
- Kota Mama III, a crossing from the Andes to the Atlantic in 2001.
These expeditions show that these techniques are not just history: they are still viable.
⚠️ A threatened knowledge
Today, totora is threatened by:
- Pollution in Lake Titicaca,
- Changing practices (motorboats, plastic),
- Disinterest among younger generations.
Some balsas are now built only for tourists, in a folkloric version that no longer preserves the true craftsmanship.
Preserving these techniques means preserving a humbler, wiser relationship with water and travel.
🦋 Pipilintu: reconnecting with the essentials
The Pipilintu project chose the totora balsa to reconnect with this millennia-old simplicity. Sailing with wind, current, and patience. Inspired by those who know that sometimes a reed and a few knots are enough to travel the world.
We built our own balsa on the shores of Lake Titicaca, alongside Aymara artisans. It is a tribute, an experience, and a way to revive knowledge that might otherwise disappear.
🎒 What totora teaches us
The balsa is a symbol:
➡️ Slowness.
➡️ The intelligence of the hands.
➡️ The bond between humans and nature.
➡️ The humility of those who accept to float without trying to dominate everything.
It reminds us that sometimes, the most fragile is also the most lasting.