Bolivia’s first peoples pre-date the better known Incan civilization, which moved south through present-day Bolivia soon after the collapse around 1000 CE of the Tiwanaku culture. We visited the remarkable ruins at Tiwanaku (less than 10% has been excavated), and climbed over enormous stepped pyramids and walked through ruins of vast temples. Next to our hotel in La Paz was an extraordinary museum of Tiwanaku and other early cultures. Further north we crossed Lake Titicaca to spend a few days on the beautiful Isla del Sol, and explored Pilko Kaina, an Incan temple visited by Pizarro in the 1530s on the island’s shore. In the south of the country near Sucre I scratched off a bucket list item hiking on a pre-Incan Andean trail in the Chataquila wilderness. Wildflowers were in full bloom and among the more notable sightings was a giant Patagonian hummingbird (no photo, alas).
