Thursday, 30 October 2014
This morning I first walked to the museum, it is really a small museum containing artefacts such as porcelain and ceramics from the Tiwanaku culture. The Tiwanaku people existed before the Incas, from about 300 BC. The height of their civilisation was from 400 to 1100, and then they died out, most probably due to a severe drought, and since they were an agricultural society they could not survive. Some stories also say that there was another tribe, the Aymaras who came to the Sun and Moon Islands to dominate the Tiwanaku people, and many were killed, but some ran away and later formed the Inca empire. The Aymaras are the predominant people on the islands today.
Some stories also say that the artefacts found under water near the Sun and Moon Islands were remnants of a lost city that sunk. However, there is no scientific proof of this, other than the finding of artefacts under water. Other stories say that when the Spanish came, the Aymaras who continued the Tiwanaku culture, hid the most important and sacred artefacts under water so that the Spanish people could not destroy them.
After the museum I asked the people at the harbour whether they could carry my luggage to the south part of the island, as I wanted to walk the trail from the north to the south. In Bolivia everything is possible with money, so I paid them to carry my luggage, and I continued to walk to the ruins in the north. This was about a 2 km trek uphill, which took me about 1 hour 20 minutes. Along the way there were many munya plants growing in the wild and I kept inhaling the scent which is supposed to help with the altitude, and I think it did because walking uphill for me today was easier than yesterday.
Very near the ruins was a viewpoint where I took some photos of Lake Titicaca. For me, the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca was more beautiful. Maybe the novelty has worn off since I already saw the lake in Peru. Then I made my way to the ruins. The first thing to see was the sacred rock or rock of the puma (Titi Khar'ka), which is a natural rock shaped like the head of a puma (with a lot of imagination). This rock is what gave the lake its name - titi which means puma, and haha which means stone or great. The Spanish later changed the name to Titicaca.
There is also supposed to be a shape of a face beside the puma, and from the pictures in the museum I could see the face, but in real life, using all the imagination I could muster, I just could not make out the face. Maybe it has eroded over the years. Anyway, the face is supposed to be that of Wira Kocha, the all powerful God in the Inca religion.
Next was the Ceremonial Table or Mesa Ceremonia, which was built by the Incas, just in front of the rock of the puma. The table is used for sacrifices, mainly llamas, for the 4 main elements - earth, water, wind and fire (sun). Today, it is still used as a sacrificial table in a local celebration that takes place on 29 November of every year, involving all 3 villages on the island - Yumani, Cha'lla and Cha'llapampa. The celebration is to give thanks to Mother Earth for good agricultural produce, as well as to ask for better produce for the following year.
The last ruins in this area was Chincana. Before reaching this site, there are imprints on the floor of what looks like 2 giant footprints, which I suppose gives rise to some stories that this island used to be inhabited by giants. Before entering the actual site of Chincana, there appears to be what used to be a gate. According to one of the guides (I pretended to take pictures while eavesdropping on what a guide was explaining to a tourist couple), there were 12 gates to Chincana. The first gate was in Copacabana. In those days, people used to perform pilgrimages, where they used to fast and perform other rituals for months in advance of the pilgrimage, and then walk barefoot from Copacabana, take a boat to the south part of the Sun Island, and walk to Chincana barefooted, to be cleansed of all evil thoughts and be purified.
I also read in the museum that the Spanish described this place as a convent, but the locals say it was a temple inhabited by priests and other religious people. It is a maze of a place, with many passageways and what looked like chambers, all made of rocks.
And then I began the trek to the south. It is approximately 10 km, mostly uphill. It took me 4 hours with many, many stops along the way, but this was ok because the scenery was quite beautiful along the way. I reached the south at about 6 pm, and I stopped at a restaurant overlooking Lake Titicaca to have dinner because I was starving. At about 7 pm I made my way down towards the harbour, where I saw the captain of the boat which transported my luggage from the north to the south this morning. He informed me that he left my luggage at a hotel near the harbour, so I continued to make my way down.
It was already dark by then, and there were no street lights here, so I just had the light of the moon to guide me. It was not an easy walk downhill at all, what could've taken me 10 minutes took me half an hour because I could hardly see where I was going and the walkway was made of uneven stone steps, so I had to tread really carefully. I made it down in the end, and I found out that the price to stay in that hotel was ok for me so I stayed the night here.
I definitely prefer the north part of the island better than the south part of the island; I find the things in the north cheaper, the people friendlier, and the scenery more beautiful than the south. Also, the south is largely a hilly area with very little beach, and I am not particularly keen on hills.
No comments:
Post a Comment