Our tour starts in earnest on the second day. We leave La Paz early in the morning and climb back to El Alto. Leaving the El Alto, road runs straight through the Altiplano, passing small communities and fields of potatoes, quinua and other local crops. Road then passes Laja, original foundation site of La Paz, and continues over a small mountain range, from which during a good weather conditions one can observe Andes (eastern peaks of the Cordillera Real), and then back down into the valley of river Tiwanaku and to Tiwanaku itself.
Tiwanaku is group of ruins, which is all that is left behind by Tiwanaku Culture that had developed for almost 3000 years, and is thought to achieve the highest level of all the cultures in South America. Tiwanaku has been declared Humanity and Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. Here we visit the 6 major archaeological areas with a local guide, and the two museums, of which the Museo Lítico is the most interesting one, housing the famous Bennett Monolith.
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