This day trip from La Paz was simply ok. For those traveling on a tight budget I would say skip it. I hope it will be useful to me in putting the Inca ruins at Machu Pichu into perspective. The guide, Freddy, was very knowlegable even if some of the information seemed to be made up. (Ex. There are ten openings because there are 10 fingers) The trip cost 140 Bolivianos + 25 bolivianos for lunch. (Expensive for the amount we saw.) Here are some of the highlights and interesting points I learnt about the Tiwanaku people and their rule over [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour a tous! Encore moi! Une autre petite journee s,est ecoulee et j;en profite pour vous en faire un bref resume, le temps de recharger mon lecteur MP3. Tout d;abord, tel que mentionne hier, j;avais reserve pour aujourd;hui un tour aux ruines pre'incas de Tiwanaku. Je prends mon dejeuner et j,attends tranquillement dans le lobby. Une dame vient me chercher a l;heure convenue. J;embarque dans le mini'bus de l;agence. On fait un mini'tour de ville pour aller ramasser 7 autres personnes. Ca fait du bien de voir la cohue de La Paz derriere les vitres securitaires d;un mini'bus. Pas besoi [View Full Entry]

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Not much is known about the pre-Incan civilization that lived along the ancient shores of Lake Titicaca, but they did leave behind an impressive city in Tiahuanaco. Even though much of it is still being excavated, and even more of it was pilfered by the Incas and later the Spanish for their own building, it is still an interesting site. The sun was hot on the day we went. It beat down on the earth, heating up the ruddy rocks that were used to build the temples and buildings over 1000 years ago. The largest site, Piramide de Akapana, is still [View Full Entry]

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The city of La Paz varies in altitude between @3000m - 4100m, a fact that was enough to blow my mind even without the altitude sickness I was suffering from! OK so perhaps travelling here from sea level in just one day hadn't been the best idea ever but experience told me my first few days at altitude were going to be pretty evil regardless and there really hadn't been anywhere else to stop in between. Still I tried to be a good little backpacker during those first days, pushing myself out of the hostel to do 'touristy' things (interspersed with [View Full Entry]

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Camisaki (Hello in Aymara)! It’s been over a week since we last blogged because we have been so busy here! We just got back from “el campo” (the field) two days ago and we have a lot to say. We left off two days before we left for the remote Apolobamba region of La Paz, Bolivia in the Bautista Saavedra Province of La Paz (northeast of Lake Titicaca). Before leaving, Laura and I went to the MUSEF (Museo de Etno-Folkloria) to do some research on the Kallawayas and meet with Majo’s prior anthropology professor for some tips on what to do [View Full Entry]

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With an early start we headed from Puno to the Bolivian border where we had heard that the farmers strikes were subsiding so there was a decent chance we would be able to cross the border. Upon arrival everything seemed fine and we filled out the forms, drove across the bridge, filled out the rest and it wasnt until the walk back to the truck that I realised that there were Bolivian army troops with grenade launchers standing there stopping us from going any further. 20 minutes and an unknown amount of US Dollars later we had made it through the [View Full Entry]

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Today we set off back up the road to El Alto. This city has developed around the airport and now sprawls across the edge of the Altiplano, a high, dry and desolate plateau in the North-West of Bolivia. New Bolivian cities are functional rather than pretty. Off the main highway, the roads soon deteriorate into little more than dry mud tracks between houses, populated by sleeping dogs and wide-eyed children trailing slowly after their mamas. Half-way through El Alto we pass a cross erected to mark the visit of the Pope a few years before. It is a gross, reinforced concrete [View Full Entry]

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Acordamos cedinho, 7 da manha e fomos tomar cafe novamento na Chola do mercado, a van que nos levou a Tiwanaku passaria no Hostel as 8 da matina. Cafe da manha a Chola novamente com toda a simpatia nos serviu um delicioso mate de coco e dois paezinhos com manteiga... muito bom. Pegamos a Van e seguimos por 72 Km ate o sitio arqueologico de Tiwanaku. Tiwanaku foi a civilizacao que deu origem aos incas, tinhamos um guia muito bom o grupo de 12 pessoas com Irlandeses, Ingleses, um americano, um alemao, espanhois, franceses. Almocamos num restaurantezinho no proprio lugar, o [View Full Entry]

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Excursion a cote du lac titicaca aujourd'hui pour visiter Tiwanaku, des vestiges de temples inca, partiellement detruits par les conquistadors espagnols qui esperaient y trouver de l'or... et qui ont construits une eglise dans le village d'a cote avec les pierres volees ! Aujourd'hui encore les fouilles continuent et on peut voir un petit groupe de gens avec des pinceaux sur des ossements, sympa l'archeologie ! Bon, c'est pas tikal au Guaté mais ca vaut le coup d'oeil... Et puis notre guide etait Sue Helen alors... [View Full Entry]

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Eng version below. Ruiny Tiwanaku sa tym dla Boliwii czym Machu Picchu dla Peru. Choc mniej spektakularne, pozostaja najwazniejszym stanowiskiem archeologicznym tego kraju. Kultura Tiwanaku powstala na wiele lat przed inkaska (ok 1500r p.n.e). Upadla okolo roku 1000 n.e. Jak wsrod wielu ludow ameryki przedkolumbijskiej, tak i wsrod tego byli swietni budowniczy. Swiatynie i inne obiekty, wzniesiono na wysokosci 4000m z idealnie dopasowanych do siebie blokow kamiennych. To, co zostalo odkopane zachowalo sie w swietnym stanie, mimo ze bloki nie byly niczym spojone. Prawdopodonie ruiny prezentowal [View Full Entry]

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