la mommia

hola

so in the end we didn´t see batman, as it wasn´t on, we watched the mummy 3 instead. this is a terrible film, whatever language you watch it in, but it was fun to experience going to the cinema in bolivia. they had some chocolate coated quinoa sweets, but we didn´t try them. quinoa is a grain that grows in peru and bolivia, full of protein and you have it in soup, and with anything basically, but i´m not sure about it chocolate coated so we gave it a miss. i think you can still smoke in the cinema here as i´m sure somebody was.

today we went to the ancient ruins at tiahuanaco, which is around an hour from la paz. this was very interesting, basically the tiahuanacos were around for ages before the incas, and they were much more peaceful, and then the incas came along and massacred them and claimed all their culture for their own, like they tended to do. the incas only actually existed for around 100 years, but seem to have become very famous. they were brutal and stole the culture and iconography from the previous peoples and didn´t actually create their own things, because how could they in such a short period. they are now on my list of people i don´t like, along with that tour leader from brazil you may remember. anyway, our local guide was very informed and i asked him lots of questions, as usual. he had been on a course last year, so he liked answering questions. there was a pyramid and some other things, like walls (very straight), and monoliths of people. these are similar to the easter island statues, and they also had a picture of a crab, which means that the tiahuanacos must have gone to the coast and known the easter island people. a german discovered the site around 1900, so there are some artefacts from it in a museum in berlin. we went round a museum there as well and saw lots of deformed skulls, and ceramics and a mummy. they buried the mummies in the foetal position so they could be easier reborn in the next life, and gave them things to take with them as it was a long journey.

we learnt also that bolivia and chile had a war in 1879, and that jacques costeau (his 2nd mention on my blog, who would have thought it), was the first person to scuba dive in lake titicaca, and that one of the buildings in the ruins was lined up with the stars, that on june 21st they have a festival there to worship the sun, and that part of their pachamama worshipping system is based on the 3 levels of condor-puma-snake, ie the world above, the actual real world on the land, and the land below - not necessarily hell, but the unknown beneath world.

we had a really good lunch for about 1p, which was quinoa and vegetable soup, omelette and chips and rice and vegetables, and orange mousse. the mousse tasted of fanta. i took a photo of a dog and some swings, and then bought a quechua phrasebook, so i can speak to the natives in their native language on lake titicaca. it looks like a very strange language at first glance, not similar to spanish really at all. but i think they will appreciate if we can say a few words to them in it. i also learnt some new spanish words from going round the museum.

tonight we´re going for dinner with our new tour leader, and the 3 new people in our group. then maybe some drinks at the hard rock cafe where we went the other day. i´m starting to smell like a bolivian, i don´t know if that is because of the diet, or lack of washing, or just is that what happens when you spend a lot of time in a country. i brushed my hair the other day which was painful, but it was starting to get scraggly, so it was necessary.