Blogs from Tiwanaku, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 3

Rond 6.00u kwamen we aan in La Paz. Eerst een lekker tukkie gedaan en daarna La Paz verkend. Het is niet echt een mooie stad (we hebben mooiere steden gezien), maar het was wel erg gezellig op straat. Heel veel straatverkoop en drukte om ons heen. De volgende dag zijn we naar de ruines van Tiwanaku gegaan (zo´n anderhalf uur van La Paz vandaan). Dit was onze laatste toer, snif... De Tiwanaku cultuur bestond al zo´n 1000 BC. Ver voor de Inca cultuur dus. ´s Ochtends hebben we eerst twee museums bezocht waar we een monoliet (een beeld uit 1 steen gehakt) van wel 7 meter hoog hebben gezien. In de monoliet waren allerlei dieren ingekerft in een hele strakke en mooie manier (condors, lama´s, poema´s, en zelfs ergens een kikker). Ook zagen we schedelvervormingen die ... read more

Yesterday I went on a tour out to Tiwanaku, this is the place where the civilisations in Bolivia began, it has many special sites and we visited a ancient arcelogical site, with a pyramid being excavated, pics attached Today I started the tour we traveled by local bus and ferry through copacabana on the way to Puno,in Peru as we crossed the border we had to get of the bus and go through the immigration stop, There are only 2 of us on the tour me and Antonio a student from England and our guide Tad, who is from Peru, ... read more

Two weeks seem to have flown by, has it really been that long? Mum left this morning, which was sad, and am feeling slightly homesick now, but Im sure it will pass! So, how have we filled in the last two weeks? Its definately been busy, some up, some downs (mostly me being moody!), but mainly its been great. It began two fridays ago, when mum arrived in the morning to La Paz. I hadnt planned anything, all prepared for mum to be jet lagged, struck down by altitude, etc. Silly me. With almost no signs of illness or tiredness, she of course is raring to go. So we spend most of that day in the travel agent, sorting out the details of our trip, and then its off to explore la paz. It is ... read more

I dag havde vi hyret en guide med chauffør i en minibus, som skulle køre os til Tiwanaku som er et ruinkompleks der ligger på Altiplano 1 1/2 times kørsel fra La Paz. På vejen dertil kom vi i gennem El Alto, som er en fattig by der ligger oven for La Paz. Her var et mylder af mennesker der var på vej til og fra La Paz for at sælge varer. Cholitaer med bowlerhatte og babyer på ryggen. I følge guiden, sidder bowlerhatten til venstre når kvinden er gift, til højre når hun er single og midtfor når hun er på udkik efter en mand - såresimpelt. Altiplano er et storslået fladt område omkranset af sneklædte Andesbjergene. Der er spredt landbrug og små lerklinede huse. Det så ud til at det var børnene der passede ... read more

One of the great things of Bolivia is that in general you do meet many travellers and sometimes travel agents who give you a lot of travel tips. One tip, regarding the excavations at Tiwanaku (=Quechua, Tihuanaku os Aymara language, but I might have them mixed up again). In short, the first Europeans who came here for very poorly executed excavations were looking for fame (not enough gold left for fortune), and described it as an Inca site. By now, everyone knows that it´s a pre-Inca culture, which lasted nearly 3,000 years (as opposed to the Incas, which didn´t last 300 years). When you look at it, by luck of bad planning, we´ll be going through the next few weeks in a historically correct chronological order. First the Tiwanaku culture/empire as a day tour, dating ... read more