Joe and Lou's Travel Blog

Today we did a tour around La Paz. First stop was Tiwanaku. This was a religious site for the Pre-Inca civilization that lasted for 3,000 years (as oppose to the Incas 100). We could see where the Incas got a lot of their culture. The Tiwanaku were highly skilled in Architecture, Agriculture and Astronomy. The site consisted of three temples which represented their three astrological states. The first was a sunken temple about 2 metres deep to worship the underworld represented by the snake and frog. The next is about 2 metres high to worship the earthly world represented by the Puma. The last was a pyramid temple constructed of traces to worship the spirt world represented by the Condor. The last temple was almost entirely destroyed by the Spanish to build churches and other buildings. The Bolivians are now starting to reconstruct the pyramid. The Spanish also "exorcised" statues by carving crosses on their arms.

In the afternoon we visited the Valley of the Moon, an area of sandstone in the lower part of the Valley of La Paz. Over the years it has been eroded so that the landscape resembles the moon (although how the Tiwanaku tribe knew this I don´t know). It reminded me of many stalagmites I have seen in caves with many cone shaped points sticking up to the sky.

From the highest point in La Paz, Al Alto (well it is now considered a separate city but it used to be a suburb) to the lowest point it is 1,000 metres. At 6 in the morning it was 2 degrees in Al Alto and 10 at the bottom of the valley. We certainly noticed the increased temperature while we walked around the Valley of the Moon. This is the reason why the wealthy area of Mira Flores (like Lima) is in the lower part of the valley.