So the adventures continue. Yesterday I went to Tiwanaku and the day before to Chacaltaya and Valle de la Luna.
Chacaltaya is now an abandoned ski-resort and a perfect example of climate change (listen up skeptics). Once the highest ski-resort in the world, sitting at a massive 5,421 meters above sea level, Chacaltaya´s glacier was 18, 000 years old. In a mere 69 years it completely disappeared. Due to missing precipitation and warming temperatures, this range of the Bolivians Andes has now been reduced to a few small patches of snow and ice near the top of the mountain. Locals from La Paz and El Alto depend on the melting of this ice for their water supply during the dry season, as well as hydropower that generates electricity for Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Not only will the disappearance of this glacier threaten the very existence of these people, it has been estimated by The World Bank that many of the Andes' tropical glaciers will disappear within 20 years, threatening the water supplies of nearly 80 million people.
From battling altitude sickness as we climbed the last 200m of this snow-capped mountain we then headed to the Valle de la Luna, or the Valley of the moon. Its only located about 10km away from downtown La Paz but we could have been on another planet. Over the centuries the elements have eroded a clay mountain leaving behind an otherworldly landscape. Stalagmites and spires of sandstone rock rise out of the earth creating a dramatic otherworldy landscape.
After a night involving me getting bullied into playing pool in our hostel in which I very nearly hit a guy by bouncing a ball off the table (whoops, sorry) I struggled out of bed in time for a tour to Tiwanaku. After clarifying to the tour guide that yes, Louise is a girls name and I am her, not a boy, we set off to these archaeological ruins about 70km out of La Paz.
Tiwanaku was magical. Set in a wide valley surrounded by imposing snow-capped mountains it is the remains of a pre-Inca city village that was founded in 200BC. It swelled to a population estimated anywhere between 200,000 - 1.4 million inhabitants in the period around 600 to 800BC. What is truly remarkable about this city, besides its stunning location, was that it contained one of the most remarkable ancient civilizations ever discovered. The people of this city were believed to be more advanced in pottery, astronomy and math than the Incas whom they predated. On par with Ancient Egypt and the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, the temples, ritual platforms and surrounding structures were built with such mathematical precision that there are theories that aliens helped the humans create these incredible archaeoastronomical places of worship.
Oh and I finally ate Llama! Esta rica!
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