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Published: November 2nd 2007
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Tiahuanaku
Venus, or so they say. So I have again fallen far behind in my blog, so I hope I can do this entry justice. Once I had returned to my santuary in La Paz, I decided that I should do something besides climb, you know absorb some culture. So I decided to make the day trip to Tiahunaku, which is the most significant ruins in Bolivia, and is the site of the most important South American society, even more so than the Incas. This is because the Tiahunaku people lasted thousands of years, while the Incas only a few hundred, we just know more about the Incas. The site itself was interesting, in that it is still mostly unground and being excavated. This must be a very slow process as we were told it was descovered by an english chap I believe in the 50´s, but don´t quote me on it. It was an interesting place though, with some great pre-inca statues and interesting stone work in the pyramids themselves. I also thought it was interesting that a lot of the stautes had crosses etched into them or had been defaced. This was done by missioneries as a type of excercism as the statues were seen
as false idols. Also a lot of the site is missing because the stones where used to build things in the community, such as the church in the nearby town. Overall for the money it was interesting, and as always I made some friends.
This led to another small, watch for everything incident in the evening. Nothing to huge, basically I had to take a cab to meet some friends at a restuarant at night and I wasn´t paying attention. Next day I noticed the 50 I got back from the caby was the most fake I´ve ever seen. Good thing it´s only about 6 or 7 dollars, bastard cab driver. The night was good though, it´s always interesting watching gringos at a local disco that plays tradicional Bolivian music. We danced to the Bolvian music then crappy 80´s music, yeehaaa.
My next small trip was to Oruru with my climbing buddies from La Paz. This was cool because I went somewhere with locals, to do something I love, for next to nothing. The climbing over all was good but nothing crazy amazing. Mainly I enjoyed the fact that I got to practice Spanish all day, and that
Oruru
Julio climbing the 7a. with the change in style of rock I was starting to get closer to the level of these geckos I had been climbing with. Who knows I may have even climbed better than a couple of them that day, and they go every week, suckas. I did officially become a gecko which was very exciting, basically I traded for a gecko shirt and now I´m a gecko of La Paz. Once a gecko always a gecko.
This also was the first of many bustrips I have had lately where there is a sales pitch on the bus. This is done with permission of the bus driver and company, and actually can be entertaining and for a good cause depending on the situation. The best I have seen was just recently in Peru, where the guy had lost his foot in an accident and now makes a living selling these heathy and somewhat tasty energy bars on the bus. Also these people will appeal to your Christian side a lot saying that you are helping out a fellow Christina brother. So I follow through in hopes that they will as well. Anyway Oruru, kind of a boring city, but good
Oruru
Messing around company helps.
So to end my stay in Bolvia I headed to Copacabana for Lake Titicaca and La Isla del Sol. I arrived in Copacana after an interesting bus ride that at one point the bus had to cross on a ferry, and we all had to take a separate ferry and met the bus on the other side. My night in Copacabana was interesting as I decided to walk to the top of the lookout which is also a highly religous hill sporting several crosses along the walk up and on the top. And as advertised there were locals that had traveled there to make a blessing for there trip. I happened upon this event as the old man who was performing the blessing had invited me earlier in his jarbled Spanish. The blessing was something crazy, as it was done by dumping a liter of beer on our hands, around three small model housed signifing their town (Oruru), also on the ground and pretty much everywhere. This was done while saying many words of blessing, and followed by us all drinking half and again spilling the other half of another liter of beer. So now my
Oruru
Julio doing the same. journey is blessed.
The next day I took a boat to La Isla del Sol which is about 2.5 hours each way. The ride itself was scenic and cold as I was told that Copacana is really hot, but it was average and with the wind off of the lake on top of a boat first thing in the morning, quite frigid. Nevertheless we arrived on the north end of the island and promptly started our tour. This consisted of a small museum of some things found by divers in the area, then a walk to a sacrificing table, a sacred rock in the form of a Puma/Condor and the Labirynth of the priests. The rest of the day after the tour was walking to the other end of the Island, which was scenic but nothing out of the ordinary, lunch with some gringas, and walking with the lines of mules to the port and then back to civilization. I must say though, my hostel in Copacana was a steal, 25 Bolivianos a night (a little more than 3 dollars) for a private room, with bathroom, shower, and cable TV, and yes now I can understand TV in spanish,
Copacabana
Sun setting over Lake Titikaka wooohooo.
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Erik
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gecko
Climbing hard, eh?! That is so awesome. Wait till you are back in the states and I give you a tour of all the best sites in Utah. I am glad your traveling is going amazing. Keep it up man. Miss the good ol' days de Buenos Aires. Ciao.