Blogs from Tiwanaku, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 4

We took a day-trip to Tiwanaku, from . Inca culture is what most people seem to think about when talking about Peruvian and Bolivian history. However, perhaps more important, for Bolivia anyway, is the Tiwanaku period. The Tiwanaku civilisation started around 1500 BC (the earlier parts that is, some people count the start of the Tiwanaku period as being 600 BC, the temples were built around 300 AD) and ended roughly when the Incas came to power, around 1200 AD - a 2,700-year empire. Think about that! The Roman empire lasted for roughly 1,200 years, for example. The Tiwanaku people seemed highly developed in terms of architecture and astronomy, working with a 24-hour division of each day, 365 day year, etc. As one example, they created an observatory pool, in the shape of a giant sun ... read more

Not the full blown Anthem. I´m on my way to La Paz. Only 2 hours of sleep, I tried for 7, laid awake for 5 hours hating anyone who could sleep right then. Don’t know why I couldn´t get to sleep. Body’s still whack I guess. 4am wakeup, sorta, was still up, and a quick drive through the semi deserted streets and I’m at the airport. I can’t wait to get out of Santiago. It’s just a big old dirty city really... It could be anywhere in the world and there is something about it which is not right. When the plane finally cleared the smoggy straight jacket I finally realized why I was starting to dislike it. Santiago has no soul. The scenery and land around Santiago, hidden from all in its atmospheric prison, are ... read more

La Paz was founded in 1548 with the name Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace). This name commemorated the restoration of peace following the civil war which started with Gonzalo Pizarro’s (Spanish conquistador) insurrection two years earlier. The city became the administrative capital in 1898, and is the seat of the Government (Sucre remains the nominal capital; the High Court of Justice also resides there). La Paz is also the highest capital in the world, situated at 3,600 m (11,800 ft) above sea level. At least that’s what the touristic brochures tell you. In fact, it is situated at three different altitude levels between (approximately) 2,800 (9,200 ft) and 4,000 metres (13,100 ft). At 4,000 m are the city of El Alto, the international airport and the poor neighbourhoods. At 3,600 m you ... read more

Rich again, with officially the worst named entry ever! this time we managed to visit a site that wasnt a cemetary. although there were still a fair amount of mummies knocking around and skulls with big holes in them. Fantastic. Tiwanaku is the capital of a very old, very advanced (in some ways more so than the Inca themselves), pre Inca civilisation. The site is ENORMOUS but a serious lack of funds has limited the scope for excavation. What is visible is a HUGE seven step pyramid, that mostly looks like a normal hill but the excavations have reveled alot of cool stuff. There is also a subteranean chapel type thingy, to represent the underworld of the ancestors (probably), a ground level one to represent the current world and one on top of the pyramid for ... read more

I arrived on the 7th of February for my first day alone on the trip. I got some good sleep after 2 nights of sleeping on the floor in Oruro. Today I went to Tiwanaku, a famous archeological site near La Paz that was home to, yes, the Tiwanaku civilization. They existed from 1500 BC until about 1200 AD and controlled territory almost as widespread as the Incas. They had some impressive sculptures, strangely shaped skulls (because the rich men would strap boards around their heads while they were children as some sort of status symbol), and a huge pyramid that still has yet to be unearthed. A 50 Bs tour took me there on this, a national holiday. It was the only way i could get out there. It was a nice day trip from ... read more