Bolivia Expedition Dispatch

June 13, 2010 – Leaving La Paz and Tiwanaku Visit

This is Leila Silveira reporting from Copacabana. We started our day with a quick stop at a view point where we had an amazing view of La Paz and all the mountains around the city.

We went back on the bus and started our drive to Tiwanaku, one of the first stops of the day. Tiwanaku is considered to be the most important civilization that developed during the pre-Colombian period. Many scientific discoveries and artistic achievements occurred during that time, including ingenious agricultural solution to confront the difficult Andean climate. The area was literally infertile, but the Tiwanakans created a system of farming platforms with water channels which slowly transformed a small town into an empire, with Tiwanaku as a capital.

The current president of Bolivia, the first Indian President in Bolivia's history, chose Tiwanaku as the site for his inaugural ceremony and mass celebration when he was voted into office.

We were all really impressed with their architecture and especially with the unique construction of cut rock.

There were several interesting things that it are hard to explain: one of them is the fact that if you lean against a specific wall on the ruins with your compass, the compass stops working for no reason whatsoever. You just need to move away and it starts to work again…

Of course Michael and Tim had to try; they both stood in front of each other against the wall with their compasses and they both stopped working! Freaky or what?

Another thing that was a fun test was there was a hole on the wall where you can put your ear and if someone stands far away and starts talking, you can actually hear them! It was quite amazing and if you look on the other side of the hole, you will see that they carved the rock like a human ear, with all the curves and holes. We all tried it while Theo, our cultural guide, stood quite far away and talked. If we kept our ear against the rock, we could hear everything he said, as if he were speaking on a microphone.

There was one statue that really amazed me. The Tiwanakans believe that crying is the ultimate way of expressing your feelings; when you are sad, you cry, as well as when you are really happy you have tears of joy. Anyway, the main statue in Tiwanaku is a priest who has tears on his face.

It was for sure an amazing visit. After a quick picnic we got back on the bus and drove towards Copacabana.