The Pre-Incan Ruins of Tiwanaku

---

Last weekend, I went to visit my friends Sandra and Nick in Potosi and this weekend, they came to La Paz for a meeting with their supervisor from their Canadian organization. After going months without seeing them, I have now seen them at Carnaval, in Potosi and again this weekend.

So on Sunday, Nick, her friend and I decided to go to the pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaku, a good hour and half bus ride (on a good day) from La Paz. Nick and I were meeting her friend in the cemetery district of La Paz, however, like most Bolivians, her friends should up late... almost 45 minutes late. No problem however as there were lots of buses headed out towards the ruins. We got on a bus headed to Guaqui, a small village after Tiwanaku but had a hard time filling up the bus and the buses don't go anywhere until they are full. After some time in the cemetery, our bus driver gave up on filling the bus and headed to El Alto to try to fill the rest of the bus. We sat in El Alto for about half and hour or three quarters of an hour listening to the woman trying to fill the bus yell "Waki, Waki, Waki, Waki, Waki, Tiwanaku a las ruinas, Waki, Waki, Waki..." (Waki = Guaqui). I was so happy when the bus finally filled up, not only because we would be finally heading towards Tiwanaku, but because I didn't have to listen to this women yelling constantly for the whole time we were waiting in El Alto.

After some time in the minibus, we finally made it to the village of Tiwanaku where we grabbed some lunch before heading out to the ruins. The entrance fee ($10) included entrance into the museums and two excavation sites. The site is still under excavation and I assume in years to come there will be a lot more to see but to this moment, there still isn't that much. I may be spoiled however as I have seen Machu Picchu and other Incan ruins on a trip to Peru a couple of years back and those were amazing to see. Not to say that these ruins weren't good, they still interested me quite a bit. It took us a few hours to get around the sites and then find a bus back to La Paz. All the minibuses that had left from the cemetery district were only going back as far as El Alto, so we resorted to taking a larger bus back to La Paz. Unfortunately with larger buses, they pick up everybody on the side of the road and all their belongings and drop them off wherever they want, so the ride back to La Paz was relatively slow. At least the bus took us back to where we left from.

Tiwanaku - one more thing crossed off the list of things to do in Bolivia. My list has almost been completed.

---

Photos

Brick, Brick and more Brick
No room for insulation though :(

Different Entraces
One for foreigners, one for nationals and one for students, however, the all end up at the same spot :)

Ruins of Tiwanaku
And look at the rain coming in :(

Our 5-star bus back to La Paz
Yeah right!