After a couple weeks of enjoying La Paz our truck was finally ready to go. Ernesto and his crew at Volks Auto went through our laundry list of requests and ended up doing a great job. Two new leaf springs were fabricated in their shop and installed, we got a new taillight and they finally fixed our steering fluid leak for good.
Our last stop in Bolivia before crossing into Peru were the ancient ruins of Tiwanaku. Tiwanaku was one of the pre-Inca empires that thrived in the region and left behind massive stone and mud complexes. Compared to Incan history, not much is known about Tiwanaku, except that later civilizations like the Inca inherited a lot of knowledge and technology from them.
We arrived late in the afternoon, got a room at a cheap hotel and visited the ruins early the next morning (we wanted to avoid the tour bus crowds). After a couple hours exploring the huge site we took off for Peru.
One of the larger courtyards. The perimiter wall is decorated with dozens of stone heads.
My favorite head.
The famous sun gate.
Some of the statues sport interesting details, such as this one holding implements for a psychadelic drug ceremony
Sorata
