February 15, 2009

This morning, Jim and I took a tour to Tiahuanico. This is an ancient site (two hours by bus from La Paz) that preceeds the Incan Empire by over 1000 years. Probably this site is far more historically significant than Machu Pichu, but the setting is not amazing and the entire site has been looted for 600 years. Five churches in the area were built from stone from Tiahuanico. We did see a giant pyramid and several temples and gates and some monoliths that were quite amazing.
This site now has UNESCO designation and perhaps will gradually be more and more restored.

My main conplaint was that there was a tiny village of Tiahuanico close to the site, but as tours generally go we were not given any time to visit it but rather we were presured into shopping from stalls at the sites gate and also to eat lunch at a restaurant there. Of course I refused. And Jim to his credit, stuck with me. The tour guide was absolutely adamant that the bus was leaving in 30 minutes and we could skip lunch and walk to the town but that we had to be back in 30 minutes and that the bus would not come for us. She also insisted that there was no market in the village. We raced off. Unfortunately the town was more than a ten minute walk. The town was filled with indigenous folk having a marvelous colourful Sunday market. The village church was built in 1500 but of course we barely had time to take a photo of the outside. I snapped photos madly and we raced back to the bus. Of course the other tour people hadn´t even been served their lunch by the time we returned. I was so hopping mad. Then iñ the grand tradition that are tours, we were forced to stand about looking at a few more things and then once we were returned, an hour early to La Paz, we were not taken back to our hostel where they had picked us up but rather we were dumped out in that same witches market we had survived yesterday. Tours may provide safety and ease in visiting various tourists spots but they are definitely not to my liking.