Ruined ruins!!!!!!!

Trip Start Nov 25, 2004

121

169

Trip End Jan 26, 2005

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Flag of Bolivia Tihuanaco, Bolivia
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Abit of culture was on the cards today with a trip to the Tihuanaco ruins (Bolivia's premier archeological site!) just outside of La Paz! We decided to do it ourselves and walked up to the cemetery district to jump in a collectivo! The walk up there itself was intersting as we headed through all the local markets, passing cow's heads with eyes, hooves, internal organs, skinned sheeps heads...you name it, it was out on show!!!! Definitely lots going on though! We found a collectivo with a very nice man and headed out of La Paz!

Our first shock when we got there was a pretty steep entrance fee!! The second shock was the first ruin we came to which turned out to be a hill with a ditch and a couple of boulders in the middle! Hmmmmmm! It used to be a 7 runged pyramid but we were abit cynical looking at the hill!!!! Mind you we had been spoiled by the impressive state of the ruins at Machu Picchu and Trujillo in Peru! Anyway swiftly moving on, luckily it started to get better! One of the ruins was a 2m deep stone walled structure with 175 limestone heads engraved in the sides...it was very cute watching a school trip running round counting them all just to make sure! The biggest and most impressive by far though was the Kalasasaya Temple with its Puerta del Sol (Sun Gate) and some impressive stone figures to match! What's amazing is the size of the rock used to carve the figures and how they moved them!!! So all in all, it wasn't as bad as we originally thought and the museum sitting behind the main entrance holds the biggest stone figure there and that truly was impressive...in top notch condition with seriously intricate carvings all over it! Unfortunately you were not supposed to take photos, but once we saw all the locals snapping away with every type of camera going, we rebelled and when the guards were looking the other way, we took some shifties! Hee Hee!

Then it was time to head back and flukily managed to bag the front seats in a collectivo while they continued to squeeze about 15 million people into the back! Had great views and then the driver decided he'd had enough of everyone and we all got chucked out in El Alto rather than back at the cemetery but hey ho, the views were great, the sun was shining so we decided to walk back through the back streets which was excellent! Everyone looked at you with a dead pan face until you said �Buenes Tardes' and all of a sudden you got the biggest smile back in the world! Awwwww! We definitely feel as if we saw the city anyway! Back into town, we headed out for a kebab, an ice cream and back for some zzzzz's before our exciting adventure to the Pampas the next day.....