Saturday

We’re making the most of the weekend left in Bolivia, so we’ve signed up for a tour. First stop, the extremely ancient ruined city of Tihuanaco (or Tiwanaku), about one and a half hours out of La Paz.

The God Viracocha. He's got human heads hanging off his elbows!

Nobody knows how old this place is and opinions vary from about 3,000 to 10,000 or so years. It seems certain that it was a city that spawned several disparate civilisations including that of the Incas and that it lasted for thousands of years- whereas the Incas lasted for only two or three hundred.

This hole was cut like a human ear canal. It greatly amplifies sound. Talk through it, they can hear you in Belgium.

Bart Simpson goes way back

What has been uncovered so far shows incredible sophistication. Just one example would be the stonework which looks as if it has been cut-very carefully- using a modern mill.

Check those corners

Corners are mathematically precise ninety-degree angles. The flat sides are dead smooth and the edges, sharp enough to cut paper. Advanced civilisation or alien intervention? Maybe they were just showing off and somewhere there’s a mountain of all the stuff they did that was crap and got rejected. Whatever the case, this is a wonderful and absorbing place to visit. It leaves a lasting impression of power and loss.
We drive past snowy mountains to Lake Titicaca. The mini-bus goes on a funny little driftwood-decked ferry to cross at the narrowest point

The driver gives it some welly to get us over a little ramp and on to the ferry. He has to brake suddenly at the front to prevent us hitting the bows. The sudden lurch gives forward impetus to the unmanned ferry and we find ourselves drifting off into the lake! One of the lads who help to pilot the ferries heads us off in another boat until another manages to leap aboard to rescue us. I wonder how many drift off never to be seen again. It’s a big lake you know. Goes to Peru.

How many we lost today, Manuel?

On the other side we drive on, with tyres whining around tight bends overlooking the lake from high above. Destination Copacabana, not Barry Manilow’s but Bolivia’s. Copacabana is hotel-lined but thankfully not (yet) over-developed. It’s just a very pretty spot on the lake with a few tourist boats, some paddle swans and a lot of little places selling the local speciality, trucha criolla (salmon trout).

Dinner at the hotel restaurant is, for me anyway, my second tasting of llama for the day, and I must say, it’s good. A snap of the spectacular sunset, a visit to the hotel internet lounge, and beddy-bye.

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