Today was a relatively early start, as we are heading out of
town on a tour to see the ruins at Tiwanaku.
It’s a bit of a drive – an hour and a half or so – but it’s a chance to
pass through the city and suburbs again and get another impression of La Paz
before we hit the countryside and then the ruins.
Our driver is present on time and good news, his van looks
to be in pretty reasonable condition, which is of course good news. It remains to be seen how good his driving
is! For newbies to South America who
haven’t done much research on this aspect, it may come as a bit of a shock as
to how the locals drive. Our experiences
on buses and watching out the window suggest that local drivers have a distinct
disregard for their own safety and that of other road users – launching into an
overtaking manoeuver and completing it only because the oncoming traffic gets
out of the way seems to be par for the course and expected of the oncoming traffic!
It can take your breath away…
Anyway, our guide hasn’t yet showed up, so given that the
driver knows where he lives, we head off there.
Whilst driving through the narrow and surprisingly busy streets, he
calls the guide and asks where he is. As
we pull up at the house, the guide tells the driver that he is at the
hotel. Drat and bother, so back we go to
the hotel. It’s only 5-10 minutes, but
it is time we could be spending on the way to the ruins.
Despite being up early, it seems Sunday morning is quite the
morning for street vendors to set up in markets that line the streets. It’s also reasonably busy with cars and
people all vying to use the same portion of the road. There’s ducking, diving, weaving and general
avoidance of being skittled. There’s
also no apparent rules for making your way through the traffic, with our van attempting
to push its way through what seems to be a completely choked intersection, only
for a path to miraculously appear in front of us and which of course closes
equally quickly behind us. While the
majority of the cars around us seem to carry at least some evidence of
collisions, I don’t recall seeing of hearing of a single crash in my time
there.
OK, back at the hotel, we get our guide. He is all apologies and we’re on our
way. Back through the chaos of the
markets and up the hill to get out of the valley and up to El Alto. The drive up is again quite scenic, although
harder to see much than coming down. Of
note (for me) is the number of eucalypt trees on the slopes. It still surprises me that they are as
widespread as they are in South America.
This part of El Alto is similar to the other part that we
saw on the way in from Lake Titicaca – all unfinished and undecorated buildings,
relatively poor roads (although slightly better than the other one) with
puddles and potholes, and lots of cars.
Oh, and lots of “Centros de Eventos” – the fanciest-looking buildings in
town, which are where people hold events such as weddings, parties, Fiestas de
Quince Anos. The Fiestas de Quince Anos
are 15th birthday parties for girls – pretty much “coming out”
parties, marking the transition from childhood into womanhood, or more
realistically, announcing the age of eligibility to be married off. Wikipedia also says that their origins may
also have to do with celebrating the fact that the girl has made it to 15 years
with her virginity intact! A feat worthy
of celebrating in Latin America it seems, as relevant today as it was in the
past (and equally surprising)…
We pass the airport, then a whole bunch of incomplete
buildings. Many of the groups of incomplete
buildings feature a warning to potential thieves that they will be given no
mercy if caught by the locals. The
warning can be in the form of a written/scrawled slogan on the front of
buildings, or more graphically, it can be a “scarecrow” that is hung from a
building or a power pole with a rope around its neck. The message is very clear! One wonders whether the message is heeded, or
if some brave souls take it on. Our
guide suggests that it is more threat than reality, but you might well expect
someone to say that to the tourists…
Eventually we exit the city limits and are in to the
countryside. There’s scattered
houses/buildings, unfinished of course, scattered about everywhere rather than
large, productive farms. Most everything
is still at subsistence farming levels.
The grass is quite green but the rivers seem relatively low in
comparison to the size of the river channels.
We’re told that it has been quite dry so far in the “rainy season”.
We eventually arrive at the Tiwanaku ruins. Unfortunately the site has been largely
demolished over the years, not only by the Spanish, and has also been somewhat
ruined by amateur archaologists. It is
said that much of the site remains unstudied.
It’s a crying shame, since what has been discovered and is available for
tourists to visit is reasonably impressive for what might have been. The pyramid, walls, sunken temple (with its
carvings of heads – all apparently unique), the Puerta del Sol etc. are all
fascinating, although as usual, there is a relatively lack of information on
signs (thus forcing you to use a guide…).
While it has clearly been somewhat reconstructed in modern times, we
still enjoy the visit, although it is cut short due to a storm that had been
lingering in the distance deciding to arrive and rain on us.
We head off for the indoor museum part of the site and it is
laid out quite well, with many interesting artefacts to be seen. Of course there is the usual mummified
remains to be found. Another building
houses the lithic objects found at site, including a massive and hugely
impressive statue. It is displayed in
subdued light, lit by spotlights and so on, for good effect. The rest of the objects are a bit sparse, and
apparently part of the museum is closed for repairs (or lack of objects?).
We get the feeling that we are being rushed a little bit by
our guide, who has previously advised that we could do as we liked for as long
as we liked. Nonetheless, we’re bundled
into the car and off we go, back to La Paz.
We feel a little bit cheated, however we eventually realise that they
are hurrying to we can get back in time to go and visit the Wrestling Cholitas
show, which we have expressed an interest in during the trip.
The Wrestling Cholitas, otherwise known as a “Lucha Libre”
show, are popular in Bolivia. Local
girls/ladies are dressed up in Aymara costumes/dress and run through a series
of wresting bouts for the entertainment of the tourists who visit, as well as a
vocal section of the crowd who are locals.
It appears somewhat choreographed, including fake rage/arguments etc.
between the combatants, although there is a definite element of reality to the
wrestlers being slammed into the floor of the ring, and outside the ring as
well when the fighting ventures there.
The slap of bodies onto the concrete floor was loud and most certainly
hurt. There were support bouts featuring
men too. The basic recipe of the bout
involves a young heroic type who is initially outclassed and punished in the
bout, but makes a miraculous comeback right when you thought they were out of
it, and then win. It’s entertaining for
a while, but does start to get a bit old after an hour or so. Equally as entertaining is the crowd – the
locals get right into it, or at least appear to! After each bout, the heroic victor of the bout
signs autographs for the queue of young fans.
Older fans can have their photo’s taken with the Cholitas themselves!
We’re eventually herded back on to the buses to take us back
to our hotel. It’s been a long day, but
quite entertaining. We’ve really enjoyed
the ruins at Tiwanaku, despite feeling a bit rushed and despite the site being
nowhere near as picturesque as, say, Machu Picchu. You still get a sense of its importance and
scale, and with the hovering storm that we had, you do get a sense of the power
of the place. The Cholitas, well, I don’t
think I’d bother seeing them again if I was to go back, but they are worth
seeing once.
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