Traveling over the highlands towards Tiwanacu it is easy to understand the importance of Lake Titicaca during pre-colonial times. Surrounded by desert like hills and snow capped mountains, the lake offered, and still offers, rich lands and - considering the altitude that it is located - a mild climate.

Around 2000BC there were three lines of inhabitants in the Bolivian high plateau: the Chiripa, the Wancarani, and the Tiwanacu. These groups, generically called Aymaras, developed the central Andes thanks to the domestication of Llamas and Alpacas, and the intensive agriculture based in Potatoes and grains. Among them the Tiwanacu developed a unique and extremely efficient system of agriculture called the Sucacollus. This allowed them to produce much more their basic needs and therefore create surplus that was used to pay "non producers" like: soldiers, priests, scientist, and an elite of intellectuals.

Around late Eleventh century the Tiwanacu Empire collapsed, by then their domain covered a huge area extended from Ecuador to the north, part of the Amazon basin to the east, the north of Chile and Argentina to the South, and the Pacific coast to the West. During more than two millennium, the Tiwanacu created a extremely developed culture which domain sciences like natural medicine, physics including hydraulic, acoustic, astronomy, and got very skillful on architecture and other crafts. They lived a very peaceful and well-organized existence; with no kings or individual leaders but a group of priests and old wise men, some people called that: “the perfect socialism”.

After the Tiwanacu Empire collapsed, the whole region was divided in small familiar groups called “señorios” They will become later the villages of this days. The Incas appear like a hundred years later at the most sacred place of the Aymaras, and the Spaniards only after the fifteenth century.

Considering that you need at least three hours to go to Tiwanacu and come back, the half-a-day visit gives you just enough time to make a standard visit to the two main museums and the archeological sites of the Akapana piramid and the Kalasasaya temple. Anyways, our guides will give you a good briefing of what this culture meant and still means form the Andes.

If you are particularly interested in archeology or you want to turn your visit into an real and teaching experience, we strongly suggest you to take the SSTITSUR tour or at least to take a full-day tour to Tiwanacu.

Itinerary:
D1. Visit of Tiwanacu ruins. Transport to La Paz

Driving:
Trekking: Short hikes