Blogs from La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 15

We went to visit the Asiento del Inca which was the seat used by the Incas during their ceremonies. We saw where the King and Queen sat, where the Incas would eat during the ceremony, where they would rest and where they would urinate down a channel in the rock. An unofficial guide came to show us the rock, explained the parts of the rock and how they were used during the ceremony, complete with demonstrations. He also asked Ronald to do some demonstrations but thankfully not the one of the Incas urinating down the rock. Of course, the unofficial guide wanted money for his explanations and I was more than happy to give him a few coins. His demonstration of the Incas lying down in the rock resting, was so funny. He was comical without ... read more

Ronald showed me how the walls were made of wood on all the fences up in the hill, then we headed back to the town and had a coffee, bought two tickets for the boat trip to the Isla de Sol and packed our bags with water, bread, mortadela and tostado de macarrones for the boat trip. Whilst we ate Saltenas (a pastry filled with juice, olives, carrots, eggs, potatoes and chicken) we watched the daily ritual of the baptism of cars. Everyday people of the town who have just bought new cars park their cars in a line outside the church, they decorate the cars in flowers, dress them up and bring lots of food and drink to celebrate the baptism of the car. The priest then comes out of the church with holy water ... read more

We were sold a Cruz Andina each - a piece of jewellery shaped in the form of a cross representing a sacred part of indigenous' people's history. The Andean Cross pre-Inca represented 13 months of the calendar year, and represented three important seasons. 21st March was the summer solstice, 21st June when the energy would enter the earth through the sun and 21stSeptember when the women would come and plant seeds in the ground and look after the earth. The 3 seasons were represented by the sky, the earth and the undergrowth? and these elements were represented by a condor (the sky), a puma (the earth) and a snake (the undergrowth) The Incas living on the Isla del Sol, every 6 months would sacrifice virgin women to the Madre Pachimana (God of the Earth) in order ... read more

Well Ronald was right. We got a trufe (a minibus without seatbelts, anybody can get on or off at any time and it’s packed full of people so that when one person needs to get out from the back all passengers need to get out to let him out.) Once we had gone down from La Paz El Alto (the highest point where the airport is located) to the town of La Paz the transport was chaos, there were trufes, all cars were Japanese (some very well maintained, some not) and there were also the first buses brought by the North Americans in the 1950s, doges, which pumped out a mass of black exhaust. As all of La Paz city centre is hilly when vehicles go down the hills they turn their engines off and coast. ... read more

La Paz, hostal residencial latino.... El mejor que hemos encontrado en nuestro camino.... Ayer amanecimos en el hotel torino, famoso hotel en La Paz, antiguo y punto de llegada de viajeros durante décadas, sin embargo, fue una noche larga con el ruido y el frío.... Y cuando nos levantamos encontramos que la ducha caliente no funciona, cosa que es muy grave acá en La Paz... Ese día martes 13 la pasamos en la cuidad, fuimos al museo de la coca, dirigido por nuestra amiga Sdenka (muy interesante museo, con mucha historia y alma)....caminamos por el centro de la ciudad y encontramos un excelente restaurante vegetariano llamado kumara... Además de un buen café! Luego fuimos al museo del etnografía y folklor, donde concretamos los detalles de la conferencia arqueológica que david presentará a los estudiantes de arqueología ... read more