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La Paz, Bolivia
The view of La Paz as you enter the valley, mount Illamani in the distance. La Paz is one of Bolivia´s capitals (Sucre is the other), and it takes a bit of getting used to. Firstly it is 3660m above sea level, and we did it in one day from Arica (sea level) in 10 hours by bus. Just walking up 5 stairs takes your breath away and as La Paz is in a valley you always have to go uphill at some point, the pollution doesn´t help either. Secondly I did a lot of research before we arrived here as we weren´t planning on visiting Bolivia when we set out on this adventure, I didn´t want us to be unprepared. That, however, meant reading lots of stories about tourists getting kidnapped by fake police and being robbed! So, I spent the first 2 days completely on edge with excess adrenaline certainly not helping with the altitude aclimatisation. Anyway, after having spent a bit of time here walking the streets without incident the City has really grown on me, it is really very clean and so interesting, you can buy almost anything on the street, and this seems to be where most business is conducted. Bolivia also has a 60% indiginous population with majority of the
women choosing to wear traditional dress, the fabrics they wear and use to carry their goods are beautiful.
We went to a wonderful music museum which had instruments from thousands of years ago to present time, many flutes, drums, guitars, horns, bells, and photos from important festivals. They had lots of instuments which were there for you to try out which was great fun. Many of the guitars had backs made from armadillo shells and condor bones and feathers were also a popular mode for making flutes, now a days thankfully modern materials are used. Pan pipe music is played here all the time, in buses, shops, plazas, taxis, not just stuff to be imported to western hippies. Bolivia we found out boasts two guiness world records. Firstly for the largest guitar ever built and secondly for the most pan pipers playing in a concert.
We preliminary booked to mountain bike down the death road. (www.gravitybolivia.com). This mountain road has been claiming the lives of thrill seekers for many years. Mark really wanted to experience it and we compared safety records, bikes and equipment of the various companies. After having several nightmares of all the different ways we
Tiwanaku Sun Gate
On 21st June (my birthday) winter solstice here in Boliva the sun will rise over the andes and the first rays will shine through the gate illuminating the monolith. could die on this trip I couldn't face it so we cancelled the excursion. It isn't really the road that is dangerous it is the traffic that uses it and after finding out that the alternative new road was undergoing repairs meaning that the death road would have heavy traffic I am glad we cancelled.
We took an excursion to Tiwanaku an archeological site 72km from La Paz. We had an amazing view of La Paz as we left the valley and the tour bus stopped for us to take photos of the Cordillera 4100 meters above sea level, with the Andes in the background, more breathtaking scenery. We went to two museums first showcasing Tiwanaku finds from 1500bc to 1400ad, you can really see the progression in human skill from the pottery, textiles, stone work, tools and in the latter years metal work also. The anthropologists believe that the Tiwanaku believed in reincarnation and this is why they mummified their dead in a fetal position. Their lands ranged from northern Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, the Amazon and Southern Peru. When the Tiwanaku began to disappear (they don´t really know why, some believe climatic changes) the Inka became the dominant
The alter, San Francisco Church
All that gliters is gold in this case. people in the same area and also extending their lands further into northern Peru, surviving about 200 years until the conquistadors. There is ongoing work to discover more from this lost civilisation including the ruins under lake Titicaca and experiments to see how they worked the stone so expertly even drilling perfect holes. As many early civilisations did, it is believed that the Tiwanaku made human sacrifices but always children under 6 years old, it is thought that this is because they were most innocent and therefore made a pure gift to the one god that they believed in "Pachamama" or "Mother Earth". The tour guide was excellent giving lots of information in both Spanish and English and she was very careful to point out how much of the info is still theory. Other tourist on the tour were surprised how good she was as apparently you don´t normally get such good info from Bolivian tour guides, this is our first so we will see. The only downside to the Tiwanaku site is the loss of so much original stone which was taken from the site to be used as foundations for the nearby railway line by the Bolivian government
Music Museum
The mask of the Devil worn at many festivals celebrated throughout Bolivia. in 1914. They have tried to restore the site but the concrete blocks and cement mortar stand out more than if they hadn't bothered.
We visited the San Francisco church museum and cloisters. The monks and priests serving here from the 16th century were always pro indigenous people and it was compulsory for the monks to study the local aymara language as well as theology. The art and artefacts on display here were nicely spaced out through different rooms around the cloisters. The central garden was peaceful and warm and the access to the bell tower was a nice way to finish the visit.
Well from a nervous begining the experience of La Paz has been a really postive one, I hope the rest of Bolivia has similar surprises instore for us.
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