Outside My Southern Comfort Zone: Getting Historical

My buddy Mateo and I coloring on Dia Del Nino

It’s hard to believe that it is turning May and the end of my trip is insight. I’m excited to return to the states and see my family and friends and to share all my stories from Bolivia. But, I am also saddened at the thought of leaving Bolivia. There are so many people here that have become a part of my life. Especially the children who have stolen my heart and refuse to give it back. It always brightens my day when I hear a child yell my name then almost tackle me as the wrap around my leg. Also, when my little buddy Mateo, who is one and some change, is crying and then sees me across the room and stops. Then he makes his way through the room and throws his arms in the air so that I will pick him up. Or, when his big sister, who is 4, tries to beat up a grown kid because he hit me in the shoulder and I have to hold her back as she is yelling “don’t hit my friend.” It’s the moments like that that I will never forget, knowing that I am making some sort of a difference in the lives of these kids. Well that’s just a few thoughts about that. Now I can fill you in on a couple of my travels before I get too far behind.

The classic Tiwanaku Photo

Easter weekend I made a day trip to visit the ancient ruins of Tiwanaku. I figured that living so close to it, that I had no excuse for not visiting it. Plus since I am interested in history and ancient cultures, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror if I didn’t go… So two of the Germans and I woke up early Saturday morning to meet our bus that would take us to the city of Tiwanaku. After about a 2 hour ride, we arrived in the city. It didn’t look like much at first, but we were still optimistic. The Tiwanaku were an ancient civilization in the Andean Mountains of South America. The civilization is thought to have originated around the year of 1,500 BC and to have lasted until the year of 1,000 AD. They controlled a majority of territory of which now are Bolivia, Peru, northern Chile and Argentina. It is believed that after the fall of the Tiwanaku that the civilization split up into other smaller civilizations and spread out throughout South America. One of those civilizations was the Incans who became the most powerful civilization in South America. The others are thought to be the Aymara and the Quechua who are the two main indigenous groups that remain here in Bolivia today. During the Incan Conquest of the Andes, they came across the empty ruins of Tiwanaku. Coming across these old ruins was a blow to their claim that the Incans were the first humans on Earth. The first time that Tiwanaku was ever recorded in history was when the Spanish Conquistadores stumbled across these ruins in the Late 1,500’s while searching for other Incan cities to conquer. Not much is known about the Tiwanaku because they had no written language. Also much digging and archeology is still needed because only about 30 percent has been uncovered of what still remains in the site.

Some of the restoration that has been done on the pyramid of Akapana

There are few small museums at Tiwanaku that hold a handful of artifacts that have been dug up around the site. A few interesting things are there but nothing that would knock your socks off. After touring the museums we walked out to the ruins. Researchers have begun restoring the pyramid of Akapana which once had stood high over everything in the valley. On top of this pyramid they practiced human sacrifices to the Gods. It was constructed out of Adobe, so now after thousands of years of rain and wind it has eroded into a weird shaped mound of dirt. Next we went into the Temple of Kalasasaya. It is a rather large open aired temple with some statues and stone structures, but a lot has yet to be uncovered because I noticed myself tripping over rather large structural stones buried below my feet. It was slightly impressive. Next we walked over to the large monolithic sun gate. Though it does not stand in the place it was intended (no one knows for sure exactly where it actually stood during the time of the Tiwanaku), it still is a rather impressing piece of work. The sun gate has carvings on it to represent the days, weeks, months, and seasons of the year which are rather accurate. After a few minutes of talking about it we made our way out of the temple and down to the lower temple of Sunkon. This is the temple that most people think of when they think of Tiwanaku. It’s where you can get the well known Tiwanaku photo of the site. The walls are lined with sculptures of faces all the way around. It seems as if the faces represent many cultures from around the world which is really mind blowing. A handful of people say that extra terrestrials helped to build these temples because a few of the faces seem to look like that of aliens. We made our way out of the temple then up and over the pyramid of Akapana to get a view of the temples from above. I have to say that in all it is a pretty impressive place to visit if you like history and mysteries but there is much research and digging that needs to be done to understand more about this civilization.

Monolithic statue that sits in the temple of Kalasasaya

Teresa and I had the Sun Gate

The faces that line the walls of the temple Sunkon

This past weekend I and two other volunteers from Hope Worldwide went to Copacabana to visit the Isla Del Sol (Island of the Sun). Much of Incan history revolves around the lake and this island. According to Incan legend, after a great flood, the god Viracocha came up from Lake Titicaca to create the world. He commanded the sun, moon and stars to rise, then went to Tiwanaku to create the first human beings, Mallku Kapac and Mama Ocllo. These first humans were formed from stone and brought to life by Viracocha, who commanded them to go out and populate the world. So this makes Lake Titicaca the birthplace of the Incas, whose spirits return to their origin in the lake upon death. It was a main pilgrimage sight for many of the Incans who would regularly come to worship the Sun God. Research has shown that human life has existed on the island since 2,200 BC. The Tiwanaku also were present on the island before the Incans were to have discovered it. The Tiwanaku had a ritual site on top of one of the mountains in the northern part of the island. It is amazing how the Tiwanaku site and Isla Del Sol are so tightly knit together.

Sunset from the beach of Copacabana

We arrived to Copacabana Friday evening and quickly found a hostel to stay the night in. Once we had our rooms we threw down our bags and made our way to the beach to watch the sun set behind Peru on the other side of the lake. While waiting I got us a few tickets to leave early the next morning on a boat to Isla Del Sol. After buying the tickets we continued to watch the amazing sunset. With everything getting darker we made our way back up the hill towards the hostel where we stopped at a restaurant for dinner on the way. I of course had the trucha (trout); I mean “hey we are in Copacabana right?” Normally, I have only eaten the fried trucha but this time I tried it a little different. I ordered the stuffed trucha which consisted of a baked trout stuffed with bacon and spinach. It was a very tasty and I guess healthy meal, if you like that kind of thing. After sitting around and trying to plan the next day out, we headed back to the hostel to turn in for the night. The next morning came early as we made our way down for breakfast and then to the docks to catch our boat. The boat filled up with people and we began our two hour boat ride to the northern end of La Isla Del Sol. Though the water was fairly smooth, a couple people got a tad bit sea sick along the way. I hate to see someone go down like that because I have definitely been in that situation before… We met a few people on the boat and shared traveling stories. That’s one thing I enjoy about traveling, meeting people who are also traveling and you are able to hear about the places they have been and decide if you want to go there as well. Once on the island, we ditched our guide so that we could explore and not feel like we were being babysat.

View from the beach of Isla Del Sol

This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy went to wallow in the mud

We set off on the trail in search of the Sacred Stone. We came across a young girl who told us which way to go. We walked for about 15-20 minutes until we got to the edge of the island and we could not find a sacred stone anywhere. So we took some photos because from where we were the views were amazing, then we made our way back to the girl. She said she would show us where it was so we followed her for one minute and we were at the Sacred Stone. It was in the middle of some rock walls and farmers crops. No wonder we couldn’t find it. The Sacred Rock was one of the most important sites in the Incan Empire. We still couldn’t find the Incan ruins that were near there but I realized later that all those rock walls around us were the Incan ruins. After snapping some photos with the rock we continued on the trail that took us to an amazing overlook where many people were chilling in the sun. From there we walked over to the rock table which is near the temple of the sun. It is said that the table was used to make sacrifices to the gods. They were some pretty amazing things to see and you could basically explore and touch what you wanted to, which is one of the things that I like about many of the places here. With time running thin before our boat was to leave, we made our way back across the island and hopped on the boat. It took us to the floating islands of Bolivia. Yea they are floating islands, but nothing too impressive. They were kind of a joke to me but they do serve some tasty fried trucha on them. After eating, we made our way back to Copacabana. Once on land, we climbed up Mt Calvario to watch the sunset across the lake. I had seen the sunrise from there before but never a sunset and it proved to be amazing. Afterwards, we descended the mountain and stopped by a restaurant to eat. Next, we grabbed some coffee and made our way back to the hostel to catch some Z’s.

I think I found a place to build my dream home...

Me looking for the Sacred Stone of the Incas

Couldn't pass up this photo

Sacred stone table for sacrifices

In the morning, we had some breakfast and made our way to the beach to have a small little church service and communion as we watch the sun lighting up everything around the lake. Since our bus was leaving soon, we went and got all our stuff packed and did some last minute exploring around the city squares before we started to make our way home. I truly had a great time on this short little trip. Copacabana is a nice place to relax and Isla Del Sol is a beautiful place to visit. It was full of breathtaking views and history. I definitely want to return to Isla Del Sol and go camping on the beach for a couple days. I saw a few people doing that and it seems like a great time. So we will see how things work out here in the future.