Well, the horrors and fascinating tales of travel never fails. Last night saw the antics of three very uncivil British backpackers. The details are irrelevant here, but ask me any time and I´ll gladly relay the stories. This aside, woke up at 9, and as luck would have it, was able to catch the last morning tour to the ancient ruins of Tiwanaku perched some 44 miles away from La Paz. The drive exiting La Paz pass El Alto neighborhoods was fascinating as it is the section of town populated by vast majority indigenous peoples. Though known to be the poorer section of town, replete with crime, still I found the view out the blurry motion of the bus window something to marvel at. The air all over Bolivia so far chokes the lungs, traffic is severely congested, yet through it all the motion of life admits no pause. One can spend a lot of time to enjoy the scenes here.
The road to Tiwanaku is pristinely beautiful as any I have seen. The vast stretches of open pasture and hills rolling from horizon to horizon delights any city dweller. For miles on end, the landscape unfurls with novel wonders of mud brick homes, flowers, rivers, grazing livestock, and distant rolling clouds that seem unending. Interestingly enough, President Evil Morales had just been there some minuts before as part of some children´s sports ceremony. Our tour group was greeted with soldiers and hundreds of traditionally attired Bolivians.
As for the ruins themselves, they were certainly not as impressive as Angkor or Tikal. However, the site is only partially excavated, and the civilization that thrived here was very advanced based on observation of their knowledge of astronomy, precision masonry, and metallurgy. Some of their constructions looks impossible without the aid of modern machinery; yet, according to the archeological record, Tiwanaku did not even have access to the wheel. This empire left no written record; consequently, not much is really known of this civilization that predates the Incans, but it gave pause to this wanderer to ponder on the scourge of time and human history.
After returning from the outing, I was alerted that there is to be a national bus strike tomorrow. As it is uncertain when it will end, I booked the next ticket out to Potosi on the last night bus.