Tiwanaku

Some of the younger/fitter members of our group opted to mountain bike down the ´road of death´ yesterday, but I opted to go instead to the Tiwanaku ruins with the older Australian couple. The journey itself was fascinating, being able to look down on high into the ´bowl´of La Paz, and go up onto the Altiplano seeing how Bolivians are still living a very traditional life in very harsh conditions. I am still amazed at how many of the women wear the traditional multi-layered skirts, carry various loads in colourful blankets on their backs and have these ridiculous looking bowler hats perched on the top of their heads!
Tiwanaku was interesting. The name means ´children of the sun´ as they were sun worshippers (not the beach variety!). They were a pre-Inca civilization who dominated the area from around 600BC to 1200 AD (I think), much longer than the Inca or Spanish. We visited a couple of museums and then spent some time wandering around the ruins, taking pictures of the Sun Gate and various other impressive looking things. The site used to be in the middle of lake Titicaca, before it got smaller. I did get to see lake Titicaca, in the distance! We went for a traditional Bolivian meal in Tiwanaku, which we all enjoyed.

Later in the day I did a little more shopping (a couple more quenas, and a warm poncho for the next part of our trip) and then a few of us went out for a pizza in the evening.