Another Lost Civilization

Wednesday 24 January

We had a bit of lay-in again this morning and on opening the curtains were faced with a a mountain in front of us, completely covered with red brick houses to the very top, where there was a line of communication masts. La Paz is situated in a deep round valley, 3,525 metres above sea level. Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan, fought for the independence of South American countries from Spanish rule - Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador gained independence before Bolivia in 1825. Many of the Spanish people had been sent back to Spain at the time of the Napoleonic wars, as more troops were needed, and therefore there was not as much opposition to independence as there could have been. Simon Bolivar later became the president of Bolivia for about ten years for 1839. He first founded a settlement named La Paz (The Peace) up on the high plain, about 40 kms from the city today, but was then told of the valley of the Cordillera Real, and two days later, founded the settlement that is today known as La Paz, the highest capital in the world. Bolivar was ably assisted by men named Santa Cruz and Sucre, both of which have provinces named after them – we are visiting Sucre in a couple of days time.

The time since independence has been rocky for Bolivia, with many wars against the neighbouring countries, most of which they lost. This has resulted in Bolivian land being lost, mainly to Chile, but also to Peru and Paraguay. Chile was mining for minerals near the border, when the experts ventured into Bolivia and found rich deposits of gold, silver and other minerals, which they reported to the Chilean Authorities, who persuaded the then President of Bolivia to let them mine over the border. When Chile started taking the minerals back to their country, the Bolivian Government tried to impose a tax, but the Chileans raised a large army and fought the Bolivians – and won – and claimed the land as part of their country. In a war with Peru, Bolivia lost their last access to the coastline, and became a landlocked country. Paraguay too took land in the lowlands after a war between 1936 and 1939. Bolivians are still trying to claim back this lost land - particularly from Chile, so that they have an outlet to the Pacific Ocean.

Renan also told us about Che Guevarra, who escaped to this country during his renegade exploits. He was finally captured in Bolivia and killed and only about 10 years ago, his brother tried to find his remains to take back to Venezuela. Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid also operated here, although there are several legends about their demise – were they shot and killed, or did they escape as shown in the film of the same name? Because of their infamy they are referred to almost as heroes here.

Renan collected us and we set off to explore Tiwanaku, an ancient civilization dating back to 45AD. It was situated about 70 kms from the city, and we passed the small settlement now called Original La Paz, near one of the toll posts, where Simon Bolivar had set up his first settlement. It was raining hard as we set out, and the dark skies overhead did not bode well for a dry day, but as we got further from the city, the clouds cleared and the sun came out. We drove over a large plateau area, looking green and fertile, much like the dales in Yorkshire, only much wider. We knew we had arrived at Tiwanaku, as we saw the line of thatched market stalls, selling yet more souvenirs – with the added attraction of small icons and memorablia of this place.

First we visited the larger of the two museums, exhibiting many totems, similar to the moai in Easter Island. Most were much smaller than their counterparts, carved in a kneeling position, with decorations around their headbands, and bodies. Some were shown with three teardrops below each eye, as if crying. In one courtyard, a large rectangular stone stood tall, in rich red sandstone, carved with ancient patterns. This was an ancient sun dial, and apparently some tribal people in Bolivia still tell the time by the sun today. The main exhibit was a stone totem, over 6 metres tall, standing in a large darkened room, itself about twenty feet square. Apparently representing a female, the hair braids could easily be seen around the back and sides of the head, held in place by a decorated head band. The body was also heavily decorated with puma heads, snakes and condor heads on the shoulders, chest and arms. Grains of corn decorated the lower body like a short skirt. The sun was a splendid carving in the middle of the back. There were detailed diagrams of the carvings on the body shown on the wall. This civilization obviously believed, as did the Incas much later, that the condor represented the heavens, the puma, the present world, and the snake the underworld, and these three “animals” are still venerated in Bolivia (and Peru) today.

We moved on to the second museum, smaller in size but with many more exhibits, built with money given to the Archeological Restoration Fund for Tiwanaku by the Queen of Spain, after her visit here. She was apparently upset at the desecration of the invading Spaniards and made a large donation for a museum to be built at the site. This museum contained information on dates of the different civilizations and many displays of ceramic pots, cups, bowls and jugs – at first very basic, but later becoming more heavily decorated and painted in reds, black and white. Weapons – spears, arrow heads and knives - and jewellery – headdresses, bracelets and earrings (round circles that fit into the ear) as well as other totems all found in and around this area, were all displayed.

As we exited the museum, to wander around the huge excavation site, there were a few spots of rain – oh dear – not the rain from La Paz caught up with us. But luckily it came to nothing and the sun was soon out once more. We started by visiting the pyramid, where the King and important people were buried. In a heap of large stones obviously removed from the excavation area, a family group of guinea pigs were playing – larger ones down to very tiny ones, only slightly bigger than mice. They ran in and out of the stones and scrabbled in the sheltered dusty earth. The pyramid had been excavated to the base, about five metres below the present day land level, and evidence of walls and steps had been found. There had been some reconstruction in places, so that now two sides can be seen, and the channels restored to take away the any rainwater into the surrounding canal, as they would have done at the time this area was inhabited. Some large pillar stones had been left in the places they were found, presumably knocked over during the Spanish conquest, when the site was desecrated and covered with earth – it took about ten years to cover the whole site. We climbed up a steep, muddy slope to reach the “platform” of the pyramid, from where we could view the temples and monoliths on the whole site. Excavations have shown where the entrance to the pyramid was, and the temples within with rooms for consultations where consultations with high priests took place. A stairway down into the depths of the pyramid had just been discovered at the end of last year, and it is hoped that it may lead to a find, something like Tutankhamen’s burial chamber in Egypt. Digging and excavation will start again at the end of the rainy season in April. Meanwhile the chamber entrance is covered over with a large slab of rock. We managed to get down to the flat ground again, moving from one grassy tussock to the next, to stop ourselves slipping down the steep side of the pyramid.

Next we went to see a sunken temple, fully restored, with seven steps down to a large open square area – seven was an important number in this civilization. There were 126 skulls around the walls, and three stone monoliths in the centre. This was just one of the temples on the site. We stood in the middle of the top edge and looked across at the other huge temple, built beside this one, looking through a stone gate, where we could see another totem. The gate to the huge temple had been placed so that at the equinoxes (September and March) the rising sun shone through directly on to the totem. Each end of the eastern wall marked the point where the sun reflected on to the temple at the solstices (June and December). The wall was 136 metres long, built in a style that was a more primitive version of the Incan building styles, with many huge stones at the base, fitting together perfectly, some with as many as eight corners. Different from Inca walls, these were built straight up, probably as there was not so much volcanic activity in this area. But it seems that the skill of Incan stone masonry had its roots in past civilizations and the knowledge had been passed down the generations. We went up into the enormous temple and could see that it was composed of three huge parts, a main central temple at least 60 metres wide and 124 metres long, with two thinner side temples about 30 – 35 metres wide and running the same length . At the entrance from one of the side temples to the main one, was a large stone with a shell-shaped hole carved out about shoulder height. When you spoke through this from the side chamber, the noise echoed around the larger temple – an early form of megaphone. We inspected the large gate and the totem, before roaming around to see a couple of other totems, and rocks found that are believed to have formed part of the altar tables. There was another gate at the far end of the temple, decorated with lots of suns and animals, which are thought to represent a sort of calendar. But this gate is not in the position it would have been originally.

We also saw evidence of the houses where priests and high officials would have resided, and a large cold store, built into the ground, which would have kept food cool all year round. This site shows evidence of being inhabited until about 1100AD, although most of the building dates before 700AD. It is thought that the Tiwanaku people left the site on the orders of the King, because of a severe drought that ravaged this area for 90 years in total. But they would have left after a just a few years, as their crops failed and water became a problem.

We were pressed to visit the souvenir stalls before leaving the site, and weakened, buying three stone plaques, showing the various icons of the Tiwanaku. I didn’t realize how heavy they were, so will have to add them to my already overweight hand luggage, I guess. We then went for lunch to a small hotel on the outskirts of the nearby town, where we ate quinoa and vegetable soup with cheese (again), llama fillets – which tasted like calves liver – with chips, rice, beans and carrots, and Colin had a banana and strawberry yogurt dessert. This hotel was very pleasant, and seemed quite isolated, but must obviously make a living from people visiting the site. After lunch Renan took us to see his country house, which is currently under construction, situated between the town and the ruins. We climbed up to the first floor, where we had wonderful views over the whole plateau to the mountains. It was then time to retrace our steps, back to the city and the hotel. We arranged with Renan to have a tour of the city with one of his colleagues tomorrow morning, starting about 09.00 so that we didn’t have to get up too early.

We tried to connect our computer to the hotel internet, but couldn’t make it work, so used the business centre on the ground floor to send a few emails, before I blogged for short while. We went out to find the main “boulevard” of La Paz, just a block away, and look for somewhere to eat. We made our way down to the end of road, where we found a wide leafy walk through the centre of the dual carriageway – hence “boulevard”. It was absolutely teeming with people - hundreds, if not thousands – some just standing around in groups, passing the time of day with friends, others wandering and strolling, others marching to reach their destinations as quickly as possible. It was hard at times to avoid bumping into other people. The roads were just as bad. There were two lanes in either direction, but all were full of cars and buses, all tooting loudly as pedestrians walked in front, or another car pulled out in front. The shops here are not as we think of the shops - they are mostly small and pokey and dark inside, only selling a small number of items. Street traders sit on the pavements, between the shops, selling their few wares – lots of cigarettes and chocolates, and bottles of fizzy drinks. Shoe shine boys hover along the pavements touting for business – still with their balaclavas over their faces. We wandered up and down, not feeling exactly comfortable – we had been told this is a ‘safe’ city, but obviously there are pick-pockets (they are world wide now), but it is quite menacing to be surrounded by so many people on the darkened streets.

We eventually chose a restaurant, mostly because while we were trying to understand the menu outside, a waiter came out and brought us one in English. Inside was quite smart and clean, and we ordered a peppered steak for me with chips and vegetables (I didn’t say how I wanted it done, but it came up quite rare), and a Bolivian dish of a large thin slice of beef over rice, with a tomato and chilli salsa around the edge and two fried eggs on top! Both dishes were fine, and the waiter was very helpful and spoke English quite well. It was then time to return to the hotel – we had spied a bookshop earlier, but it was closed by the time we went back after dinner, so I will just have to read my last book again. I blogged for a while, as I could find no new tennis on the television.

We are going to Sucre the day after tomorrow and are seriously thinking of just taking backpacks again, for the four days. It is much easier at the airport with smaller bags. We are coming back to this hotel after Sucre for one night, and the hotel here has a storage facility. But that means more packing tomorrow.