We finally made it to Bolivia! It was late night when we arrived, so the first thing that we did was go to the luxurious Columbus Palace Hotel in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. It was a nice, cozy two-bedroom room. We stayed there for the night since we were pretty tired from the flight.
The next morning, we felt like going to the famous Tiwanaku Ruins. They weren't very far away, probably a two or three hours, but we just took a helicopter that took people to places on Lake Titicaca, so it ended up taking no more than an hour. Once we got there, the first thing I noticed was that they were some of the most amazing ruins that I had ever seen! They had very interesting architecture, and they were just neat to see. The were mostly short height wise, but they stretched on for miles length and width wise. We only explored portions of it, as we would have been there for days. Our tour guide was great, he taught us that they had no written language, so no one knows what their inhabitants referred to the empire as. We heard from the tour guide that archaeologists have hypothesized that Tiwanaku's modern name is related to the Aymara term taypiqala, meaning "stone in the center". We found all this very interesting. Overall, going to the Tiwanaku Ruins was a very fun and insightful experience.
Entrance to the "Tiwanaku Ruins"
After we were done touring the ruins, we took the helicopter back to La Paz. At La Paz, we went to eat lunch in a small independent restaurant, and it was delicious! After that, it was only three o'clock, so we decided to go to another place. We decided on going to the Amboró National Park, since we've heard great things about it. It would've been a three or four hour drive to get there, and since we are just so rich, we took another helicopter. We got there in about an hour and forty-five minutes. This was a good decision to come here, the Amboró National Park was a vast, immense, majestic collection of forests. It contained four different zones; a humid tropical forest, subtropical deciduous forest, a sub-tropical forest, and temperate forest of the Andean mountains. First went to the humid tropical forest, which just full of birds! More than we could count. It was absolutely appalling. Then afterward, we went to the temperate forest of the Andean mountains. We drove there in a jeep, but it still took about an forty minutes to get there. It was as beautiful as the last forest. So majestic and huge, we loved it. In both sections of the park, we just walked along the nature trails for a couple hours, and it was just amazing, I felt like I wasn't even on Earth anymore; it was unlike anything I've ever seen. We've seen a lot of amazing National Parks, but this one was easily one of the best for it's majesty and serenity.
A beautiful picture of the serenity and calmness of the Amboró National Park
We felt very tired from all the walking we did today, so when we got back to the hotel we ate a meal in the hotel, then we all went to sleep. We've only been here for a day and we're already exhausted!
We finally made it to Bolivia! It was late night when we arrived, so the first thing that we did was go to the luxurious Columbus Palace Hotel in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. It was a nice, cozy two-bedroom room. We stayed there for the night since we were pretty tired from the flight.
The next morning, we felt like going to the famous Tiwanaku Ruins. They weren't very far away, probably a two or three hours, but we just took a helicopter that took people to places on Lake Titicaca, so it ended up taking no more than an hour. Once we got there, the first thing I noticed was that they were some of the most amazing ruins that I had ever seen! They had very interesting architecture, and they were just neat to see. The were mostly short height wise, but they stretched on for miles length and width wise. We only explored portions of it, as we would have been there for days. Our tour guide was great, he taught us that they had no written language, so no one knows what their inhabitants referred to the empire as. We heard from the tour guide that archaeologists have hypothesized that Tiwanaku's modern name is related to the Aymara term taypiqala, meaning "stone in the center". We found all this very interesting. Overall, going to the Tiwanaku Ruins was a very fun and insightful experience.
After we were done touring the ruins, we took the helicopter back to La Paz. At La Paz, we went to eat lunch in a small independent restaurant, and it was delicious! After that, it was only three o'clock, so we decided to go to another place. We decided on going to the Amboró National Park, since we've heard great things about it. It would've been a three or four hour drive to get there, and since we are just so rich, we took another helicopter. We got there in about an hour and forty-five minutes. This was a good decision to come here, the Amboró National Park was a vast, immense, majestic collection of forests. It contained four different zones; a humid tropical forest, subtropical deciduous forest, a sub-tropical forest, and temperate forest of the Andean mountains. First went to the humid tropical forest, which just full of birds! More than we could count. It was absolutely appalling. Then afterward, we went to the temperate forest of the Andean mountains. We drove there in a jeep, but it still took about an forty minutes to get there. It was as beautiful as the last forest. So majestic and huge, we loved it. In both sections of the park, we just walked along the nature trails for a couple hours, and it was just amazing, I felt like I wasn't even on Earth anymore; it was unlike anything I've ever seen. We've seen a lot of amazing National Parks, but this one was easily one of the best for it's majesty and serenity.
We felt very tired from all the walking we did today, so when we got back to the hotel we ate a meal in the hotel, then we all went to sleep. We've only been here for a day and we're already exhausted!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambor%C3%B3_National_Park