Tiwanaku

I went on a tour to Tiwanaku today, and as we were trying to exit La Paz, I noticed that the bus made a few turns back into the city.  Finding this a little strange, I asked the tour guide what has happened, and he shared that there are blockades and 2 of the routes we had tried were blocked. 

We were lucky that we managed to get out at the 3rd route we tried, but in the process wasted an hour, though we got a pretty good different view of the city.  I am hoping that I will not have any problems with getting to Copacabana tomorrow!

Tiwanaku is a small town located about 70km outside of La Paz.  This is a really important town in the historical period, as it was said that the Tiwanaku was the civilisation before the Incas (between the period of 2,000BC to 1,500AC).

In this town, they are still uncovering historical and archaeological finds of the Tiwanaku period, and how the civilisation had managed to build a city with the resources from the mountains and yet being able to transport them.

What fascinated me during the tour was discovering how Bolivia was actually formed.  During the Pre-Colombian period, apparently the area which is the current day Bolivia (from Lake Titicaca all the way to the Salt Flats), used to be an ocean.  With the movement of the earth plates and changes over time, mountains started to “grow” and the water from the ocean slowly drained out. 

This thus resulted in the Salt Flats being what it is today.  As for Lake Titicaca, it is no longer a salt water lake, but rather fresh water as the water in the lake comes from the melting of the ice from the surrounding mountains. 

Also according to the tour guide, there area about 300 species of potatoes and 200 species of corn grown!  I never knew that there could be so many different type of potatoes and corn!

Museo Litico

The main display in Museo Litico is the Pachamama statue which stands about 7m tall. 

In local beliefs, Pachamama is the Mother Earth, and on the Pachamama are a number of carvings and engravings which depicted a puma, condor and a couple of other animals, known as the sacred animals. 

We weren’t allowed to take pictures in this museum but I sneaked one anyway :P

 

Museo Ceramico

Containing many archaeological finds of the use of ceramic in the daily life of the Tiwanaku period. 

Wasn’t too interested in this museum :P

Cemetery & Pyramid

Located in this area was both an ancient cemetery (Putuni) as well as a Pyramid (Piramide de Ahapana), which was still being restored.  What we saw was some steps, that were partially restored, and we were told that this used to be a Pyramid consisting of about 7 steps. 

Each step was supposed to represent something, but I can’t remember the details

Archaeological site of Kalasasaya

They had reconstructed the whole site of Kalasasaya, based on the ruins they had found, and it was pretty impressive to think of how they actually piece the whole place together rock by rock.

I found this site rather interesting, as it houses a few key statues and monuments and the guide explained how these were positioned in the Tiwanaku period and in relation to the movement of the sun at different points of the year. 

What purpose it served, we still do not know.