La Paz

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La Paz


Day 35


We arrived in La Paz, the highest capital city in the world (4000mts) just after 7am after having taken another overnight bus journey, this time on a far better bus, windows and seats were all intact.

We checked into our hotel (Hotel Condeza) with the help of a friendly taxi driver and headed out into the streets to explore our latest temporary home. Immediately we stepped into the tourist zone. Packed with shops selling the local handicrafts, beautiful bright coloured textiles, blankets, pan pipes, small Pachamama (Mother Earth) effigies etc.

Our first stop was to a Museum, the Coca Museum. As the title suggests this was dedicated to telling the history of the Coca leaf, from it´s mythical orgins and uses by the Andean people (as far back as 2000 B.C) to the sad drug abuse problems caused as a result of the leafs discovery.

We took a tour of the San Francisco Cathedral and as we were taken around had to avoid the cast of actors getting their photographs taken for the next carnival advertisements. They each wore a traditional costume from each of the Bolivian provinces, each brighter and bolder than the last. Towards the end of the tour we were actually taken up onto the roof of the Cathedral and to the bell tower for an amazing view of the bustling city. The roof of a Cathedral was not somewhere either of us had ever expected to visit so this truely was a unique Cathedral visit.

The 'Witches Market´, or Mercado de Hechicería, was another interesting visit that day and well worth the walk up and around the steep streets of La Paz to find it. It was not a ´market´ per say, but rather an area where the street sellers sold items such as dried Lama fetus and all sorts of magical potions and mixes. Some used for healing and good luck, others for sexual potency and fertility. The Lama foetuses are burned in homes as a means of protecting the house (apparently).

Later that day we took a coffee break to take the weight off our weary legs and again bumped into our two English friends from the Salar de Uyuni jeep trip. It´s a small world afterall.


Tiahuanaco - Day 36


Today we visited Tiahuanaco, our first important Inca site. We took a local collectivo mini van rather than an expensive tour bus which allowed us the freedom to roam around and spend as much time as we needed at the site. Many archaeologists believe the site dates back to 1600BC and was a ceremonial complex at the centre of the empire.

Tiahuanaco is currently part of an ongoing restoration project with the local villagers involvement. This protection is greatly needed as sadly today the site is not protected from the wear and tear of tourists trekking through with little respect for their surroundings.

Tiahuanaco is layed out with the Kalasasaya (Standing stones) refering to the two main statues found within them, the Ponce and Fraile monolith, whose carvings are either a calendar or a dipictation of their creator God.
The Templo Semisubterraneo, which is a sunken temple lined with protruding faces (see photos), which some claim represent the people of all ethnicities - or are depicting the different states of health.
The Akapana, originally a pyramid and said to have been the second largest in the world.
The Pumapunka section, believed to have once been a port.
In addition to these outdoor sites there were two museums which stood within the complex itself, one containing one of the huge monoliths (see photo).

As part of a UNESCO site I would hope that future plans to restore the pyramid and other areas are completed and with a passion to preserve, not just uncover.

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