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Published: December 2nd 2007
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Valley View
As seen from the first stop with mountain ranges in the background. We had bought our ticket yesterday to go from La Paz to Tiwanaku on a day tour. The tour bus collected us from the hostel. It was a nice small group. This was an amazing for me, as I had never read or even heard about Tiwanaku, so naturally I was curious as hell. Anshu was not to excited - all ruined out. Our first stop was on top a hill overlooking a huge valley and snow capped mountain range in the backgroud. Here we were shown the site of some offerings made to the Gods by normal people - these includes burnt coco leafs, llama foetus, and other such stuff. We were also told about a local legend that believes the two mountains in the backdrop were brothers and ends with how one chopped of the other's head and therefore only half a mountain exists. Jumped back on the bus and arrived at Tiwanaku.
Tiwanaku (Spanish spellings: Tiahuanaco and Tiahuanacu) is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in Bolivia. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately
five hundred years. The ruins of the ancient city state are near the south-eastern shore of Lake Titicaca, about 72 km (44 miles) west of La Paz, Bolivia (extracted from wikipedia).
Personally I would have been very disappointed not to have seen Tiwanaku. Considering it predates the Inca period and although most of it has been destroyed (and the stones from the destroyed monuments used to make nearby church, buildings and railway) it was still amazing. The walls, the figures, the prietess, sun gate, the entrance to Kalasasaya, and the huge single figure in the museum. I was so excited, do not think I have seen so many artifacts. And the museum was full of pots and things used in daily life at Tiwanaku. The repeating patterns on the stelas, figures and artifacts told a story or were used as a way of recording time, seasons and equinoxes. Pretty amazing stuff for people that predated the Incas to be so advanced. The pictures say it all when words fail or fall short.
Had a bit of a walk around the handicraft markets and I bought a small replica of the sun gate, then it was back to La
Amazing
stone artifacts in the museum. Paz. Once we were back in La Paz we sorted out tickets from La Paz to Uyuni at the bus stop. Also went to the post shop to find out the cost of sending some of our shopping home - too expensive for our bank balance, so after mulling about it decided not to. Went and bought some supplies for our trip to Uyuni. Funny things was, this was the only place on itinarary that kept getting crossed off our list and was back again, off again and on again. This was mainly because we could not reliable and regular transport to Uyuni. And had read in several place that it was quite a possibility to get stranded in Uyuni. This was something we could not afford as we were really short of time and had all our accomodation booked in advance. Any hiccup could mess up the entire plan.
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