Hello, All -- today I'll cover the days from Puno, Peru back to Cochabamba, which will finish the saga of our trip. This of course doesn't include any of the neat hotels where we stayed, which may feature in a future blog when I have nothing else of interest to tell you. :-)
First of all, as we left Puno we drive along Lake Titicaca for quite a while. This is still on the Peruvian 60% of the lake. It's much bigger than we had realized. It's about 2-1/2 hours from Puno to the border.
We drove to a place called "Desaguadero". I guess you could say it's the border-town where Peru meets Bolivia. This is a statue in the center of town. I couldn't find anything that told me who he is - sorry.
After going through Peruvian immigration, we walked across the border under this sign.
There is a bridge over which you walk from one country to another.
This bicycle-taxi was at the Peruvian end of the bridge. What a load, right?!
And on the other side of the bridge, "Welcome to Bolivia."
This is some of the Bolivian part of Lake Titicaca.
About an hour south of the border we came to the town of Tiwanaku.
There were a couple of houses like this. I thought they were strange-looking enough to share with you.
This is the restaurant in Tiwanaku where we ate lunch.
All the tour buses stop here apparently.
We were lucky to get there right ahead of one that was loaded with Japanese students.
These are three Bolivian flags flying at the entrance to the Tiwanaku archaological site. On the left is the local "department" flag (equivalent to a county). The multi-colored one in the center represents all the many Indian tribes in Bolivia (there are 37 inidigenous languages in this country, though Spanish is required of everyone. The most common indigenous languages are Quechua, Guarani, and Aymara.) The flag on the right is the national flag of Bolivia.
We spent almost 3 hours after lunch at the Tiwanaku ruins. They aren't very well maintained or very tourist-friendly, really - so much more could be done to make things intelligible to visitors, but that's Bolivia for you. They have a huge monolith that was unearthed from the site and is now in a special building built just for it. However, they won't allow pictures to be taken; you'll just have to take my word for it. It's at least 30 feet high and all carved in one piece. When you see the smaller monoliths later in this blog, just multiply those by 2 or 3 times and you'll have an idea how big the "monster monolith" is.
Tiwanaku actually pre-dates Machu Picchu, which surprised me.
Apparently when the Tiwanaku empire fell apart, some of the people went to Peru and became the Incas.
Others went north to Lake Titicaca and eventually settled on the Floating Islands (the Uro tribe).
This is called the "kalisaya" and it is huge, as you can see if you notice how small the people are.
I think it was used for large assemblies and worship.
This is us in the Kallisaya with the Temple of the Sun showing through that archway in the center.
This is called the "megaphone stone". If you put your mouth up to that hole and speak, you can be heard all over the Kalisaya, as if your audience were standing right by the stone. In the
Book of Mormon there is an account of King Benjamin talking from a tower to a huge gathering of people -- I wonder if he had something like this to use.
This is one of the "ordinary-sized" monoliths uncovered at the site.
Notice how big it is in comparison to the man taking the photo,
and then just imagine the one they found that is 2 or 3 times this big!
This is a close-up of the carving on the arch of the Temple of the Sun.
This is called the ""House of Israel" carving (at least by our guide.)
The figure is holding a stick in each hand and these are the "sticks of Judah and Joseph"
as mentioned in the Bible, in Ezekiel.
This is the arch of the Temple of the Sun. See the "House of Israel" carving in the center?
This is just to show how enormous some of the stones were. That cornerstone is all one piece.
This monolith - like figure on the arch - is holding the two sticks in his hand.
He is one of several monoliths that were left here rather than being put in the protective building I mentioned.
(Incidentally, in case you wondered, it was COLD that day - hence our heavy jackets.
It was raining off and on, and blowing, and we were at about 11,000 feet elevation.)
Just another shot to show you how enormous some of the buildings/walls at Tiwanaku were.
This pyramid is the current excavation project.
It appears to have had at least 7 levels and they've uncovered only the bottom three foundation walls so far.
When we finally left Tiwanaku, we drove to La Paz, about an hour away. Here's one of the mountains near La Paz. Isn't it magnificent? And when you think that La Paz is at 12,000 feet just imagine how high that peak is.
This mountain is famous because it has 3 peaks.
It's as high as the one above, though it looks smaller because we zoomed in on the one above.
Our hotel in La Paz was called La Casona.
Isn't that an interesting dome and turret? Very "south of Spain" looking, to me.
This is the plaque given to the hotel by the city,
after the hotel was restored in 2011.
It used to be a colonial official's residence.
On the Sunday we were in La Paz we went to church with President Valdez and his wife.
It happened to be ward conference for that particular congregation and they always have beautiful flowers for their conferences. After the meetings, they gave one arrangement to me and one to Sister Valdez. (We sent ours home with her, though, because we had no place to put it in the hotel.)
That night, since we were on our own, we went to Cafe Banais for dinner.
It was delicious - and aren't those interesting decorations hanging from the ceiling?
They are cholita skirts!
On Monday the 24th, the last day of our trip, we toured La Paz.
The city is built at the bottom of a "bowl" and is surrounded by steep hills which rise 3,000 feet to El Alto, the city at the top (where the airport is.)
This is the "sky-way" the government is building so people can get to El Alto without driving up
or riding in a bus, trufi or taxi. I wouldn't get on this thing for any amount of money,
but many people we talked to were quite excited about it.
Our first stop was the Valley of the Moon.
This statue - "Spirit of the Andes" stands at a high point on the trail.
Farron on the trail through Valley of the Moon.
Here we are about half-way around the trail which loops through the park.
These mud formations are a strange sight, especially right on the edge of the city.
That peak behind us in the center is called "The Devil's Peak".
When we finished at the Valley of the Moon, we visited the ceramic artist Mario Sarabia. He is quite famous in Bolivia and has had a number of shows around the world (Paris, London, etc.) This is the street entrance to his home and studio - no big sign, no way to know what or where it is except the plaque on the left, which is a copy of one of his best-known works.
This was my favorite of all the things I saw in his studio.
Unfortunately, it was too expensive for my budget.
It is called "The Flying Cholitas".
They are flying to the top of the mountain to leave an offering to the gods.
Some more examples of his work.
Here we are with the artist himself. He was extraordinarily gracious and kind.
I was quite ill from the altitude that day and he talked to me about how to overcome it and stay well.
I love his work and only wish I could afford it - AND could get it home safely.
From the studio we went to lunch and then to the Quilliquilli Lookout.
This is one view of La Paz from the lookout.
And here we are with the city behind us.
Next we went to this narrow little street which has museums all the way down it.
Unfortunately most of them are closed on Mondays.
Fortunately, one exception was the Museum of Musical Instruments.
I took at least 200 pictures - I've never seen so many musical instruments in my life (!) -
but I won't inflict all those pictures on you.
This is a map showing where various instruments were developed in the country of Bolivia.
This is an ankle-rattle worn by dancers and it is made of the hooves of baby llamas or alpacas.
This is a stone flute from pre-Colombian times - maybe from Tiwanaku, I'm not sure.
Horns like this are still used in folk music and folk dancing.
It made me think of the ram's horn - I think it's called a "shofar" - that is blown for Passover.
This man - Ernesto Cavour - is one of the most important musicians ever to live and work in Bolivia.
He invented many musical instruments (mostly string instruments related to the guitar) and is a celebrated performer and teacher as well. In this picture he is playing a
charango, which is smaller than a guitar yet has more strings and a much higher sound.
Below are two examples of Cavour's inventive genius - both are double-necked guitars, but slightly different.
What really surprised me was that he invented one with FIVE necks like the five points of a star. I can't imagine how he played it!
I included this poster because it shows Señor Cavour playing one of his double-necked charangos.
Also, the flautist on the left is the uncle of Israel Solis, our guide!
I though it was cool that he has a professional musician in his family.
The last place we visited on Monday was Murillo Square, named after Pedro Murillo, an early Bolivian leader. According to our guide, Murillo was like George Washington - totally honest and ethical and not at all self-seeking as have been more recent leaders. Here we are outside Murillo's tomb.
This is a list of many of Murillo's civic accomplishments:
Organizer of the Republic of Bolivia,
Creator of the Bolivian Civil Code,
Founder of the San Andres University . . . and many more.
And these are the important battles he won.
The square is practically knee-deep in pigeons;
I guess it's like St. Peter's Square in Rome.
They are so tame they will sit on your hand or shoulder if you'll feed them, as you can see.
And here we are at Murillo Square with the Cathedral and the President's Palace (the pink and white building with the flags) behind us, as well as about a million pigeons. This was just before we left for the airport - the finale to a wonderful day.
We left the city about 5:00 and were congratulating ourselves on being early when,
about half-way up that long 3,000 foot climb to the plateau,
we came up behind a protest march that was blocking the entire 3-lane highway.
We followed them at a crawl (about 3 mph) for about 30 minutes.
Fortunately we had plenty of time - our flight didn't leave until 6:30.
I thought it was interesting that there were many little children walking along with their mothers,
and that was a long, steep hill!
Finally we got to the airport and to our flight home.
Amaszonas is, literally translated: To more zones (areas).
Isn't that a great name for an airline?
It was a wonderful, unforgettable week. I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of it. Take care - be well, be safe, be happy - and until next week,
vayan con Dios!
