{"id":4044,"date":"2013-05-19T10:39:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T14:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/?p=4044"},"modified":"2017-07-05T22:37:58","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T02:37:58","slug":"tiwanaku-colonial-churches-and-natural-arches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/2013\/05\/19\/tiwanaku-colonial-churches-and-natural-arches\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiwanaku, Colonial Churches and Natural Arches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gateway<\/a>

Gateway of the Sun, Tiwanaku<\/p><\/div>\n

Tiwanaku is mandatory, even if you are in Bolivia for only a few days.\u00a0 It is the premiere\u00a0archaeological\u00a0site in the country and provides an opportunity to learn about the longest lived empire in South America.\u00a0 On the way to Tiwanaku, you can visit the first cathedral in Bolivia and the site of the founding of La Paz.\u00a0 Just beyond Tiwanaku is the Titicaca port town of Guaqui, with its own colonial church, a couple of natural arches carved by time and weather from sandstone, and the town of Jesus de Machaca with another colonial church, quite different from the others.\u00a0 The short drive from Guaqui is a quick introduction to the altiplano and also features nice views of Lake Titicaca.<\/p>\n

Tiwanaku is only 1-2 hours from La Paz, so it is an easy day drip.<\/p>\n

\"Church<\/a>

Church in Laja, first cathedral of Bolivia<\/p><\/div>\n

Take Panamerican Highway #1 west southwest leaving El Alto.\u00a0 This is the road to Desaguadero and the Peruvian\/Bolivian border and is paved all the way there.\u00a0 Only some 12 miles from the intersection where Highway #2 splits off to the northwest, you will arrive at Laja<\/a>.\u00a0 Either coming or going, take a few minutes to visit the initial founding place of La Paz and the first cathedral in the region.<\/p>\n

There is a toll booth just past Laja.\u00a0 The turnoff to the right for Tiwanaku<\/a> is only another 21 miles down the road.\u00a0 The site itself is about a mile down the road and to the right, and is well signed.<\/p>\n

\"Tiwanaku<\/a>

Tiwanaku Church<\/p><\/div>\n

After leaving Tiwanaku, you should visit the Tiwanaku church in town, which is about half a mile further.<\/p>\n

On the way out of town, watch for the sign for Pumapunku on the left.\u00a0 Pumapunku is part of the Tiwanaku site, but I have not yet visited it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Chapel in Guaqui<\/p><\/div>\n

Another 11 miles from the turnoff to Tiwanaku is the turnoff, also to the right, to the Titicaca port town of Guaqui.\u00a0 Here you can visit the colonial church and drive out to the port, which is a\u00a0transshipment\u00a0point for cargo coming across the lake onto the railroad spur that runs from Guaqui to La Paz.<\/p>\n

Just beyond Guaqui is a police checkpoint. \u00a0The focus here may be smuggling or drugs, as when I have been here there have been many trucks parked to the side of the road, likely for inspection. \u00a0About 3.5 miles west of Guaqui a dirt road veers off to the south. \u00a0The road climbs a ridge south of Lake Titicaca, and there are nice views out over the lake.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the natural arches<\/p><\/div>\n

On the left side of this road, at about 2.3 miles from the turnoff, two natural arches<\/a> have been carved in sandstone fins just a short walk off of the road.\u00a0 They make a short, fun, walk up the hill and a nice natural counterpoint to all the man-made architecture which is the focus of this trip.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_3012\"<\/a>Another 14 miles down this dirt road will take you to Jesus de Machaca<\/a>, with another major colonial church.<\/p>\n

Attached is the usual\u00a0.gdb file<\/a>\u00a0with location information on this trip.\u00a0 It will open in Garmin’s free Basecamp (or MapSource) software or Google Earth to allow you to review the trip before heading out.\u00a0 Of course, the best way to use it is downloading it onto your GPS for turn-by turn directions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tiwanaku is mandatory, even if you are in Bolivia for only a few days.\u00a0 It is the premiere\u00a0archaeological\u00a0site in the country and provides an opportunity to learn about the longest lived empire in South America.\u00a0 On the way to Tiwanaku, you can visit the first cathedral in Bolivia and the site of the founding of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,125,92,61,60,58,100,57,91,59],"tags":[190,187,172,171,169,189,168,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4044"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4968,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044\/revisions\/4968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}