Thursday 28 May 2009

The Death Train!!!

Hmmm have i posted this before, anyway nehmind, finally got to la paz! The highest capital city in the world! Although technically sucre is the proper capital la paz is just the centre of government.
Anyway its a crazy city, the place is 3600m above sea level and is in a kind of bowl. the rim of the bowl is 4000m high and the city is literally overflowing from its 'bowl' onto the Andean plains above!
Anyway crazy city, lots and lots of traffic all tooting their horns, went to the main church and had a guided tour and saw a demonstration by miners from the roof and tower, was a great place. Then visited the witches market where they sell llama feotuses for sacrifice!! Scary stuff but its where most people presents have come from!!!
Then the other day we went to the ancient city of Tiwanaku. Its not properly excavated yet but there are three monuments, one to the heavens which was once a big pyramid with a pool on top shaped like the southern cross where they observed the stars! The second temple is one to earth whcih is precisely aligned to the soltices and has the real life star gate!!! Then the third is underground and is the temple to the dead and there are all these carved heads in the walls and some people say that some look like aliens!! Wierd stuff. But they were predecesors of the inca and the city was built about the same time as ancient greece and rome!! They even had the same calender as us! 7 days, 12 months!!! Amazing!
Today we went up a real Andeee....he he...a 4800m mountain. We drove most of the way up a really scary dirt track!! Then we gave an offering to pacha mama. This place used to be a ski resort 20 years ago but now the glacier is practically non existant! Crazy, so they all know about global warming here!
Secondly today we went to the moon valley which were these wierd turmite mound type hills that created this really amazing landscape! The indians used to beleive that they represented the souls of people and the continuation of life....but unfortunaly they;ve managed to build over most of the formations because they are really soft.

Anyway tomorrow we head to copacabana on lake titicaca....will post pics when i can.....

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