Samaipata

Weekends in Samaipata are busy with visitors from Santa Cruz; midweek, prices tend to be lower and this is the best time to relax, enjoy the comfortable climate and explore the area's jewels, including El Fuerte archaeological site.  See www.samaipata.info for information.

Sights

The museum Centro de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Antropológicas Samaipata, provides a valuable introduction to the nearby pre-Inca ceremonial site known as El Fuerte . The carved rock can not be walked upon at the ancient site but there is a model of it in the museum. There is also a collection of pre-Inca lowland ceramics dating from around AD 300 and a good mock-up of the cave near Mataral. Roadrunners staff give an enthusiastic tour of the museum included in the El Fuerte trip, which really brings it to life.

Along with Buena Vista , Samaipata is a major gateway to Parque Nacional Amboró .

El Fuerte

Nine kilometres east of Samaipata, and often windy, is El Fuerte, Bolivia's second most visited pre-Columbian site after Tiahuanaco, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. Its chief attraction is a vast carved rock, a sacred structure that consists of a complex system of channels, basins and high-relief sculptures. Behind this are the poorly excavated remains of a city. There is convincing evidence this was the easternmost fortress of the Incas' Bolivian Empire and the original Samaipata. The Spanish first took this site over then abandoned it to resettle in the valley below from where, it is said, they could control the passing silver convoys.

The carved rock will be your first stop. It is no longer permitted to walk on it due to the erosion this causes and the vandalism of previous visitors. The carved rock is 240 m by 40 m and 10 m high, the biggest in South America. Some suggest Amazonian people created it around 1500 BC, but the sandstone is soft and erodes quickly, so it could be a lot younger.

The main carvings are Inca. In front is a circular relief of a puma and alongside two others, badly eroded. The wall further back forms the remains of the temple of the jaguar. Also further back are the beautiful, 24-m-long patterned channels (which will be easier to see from the viewpoint). These are thought to symbolize rattlesnakes and sacrificial blood and, during Inca rituals, chicha(corn beer) released from the central temple would wriggle its way down the criss-cross rhombus carvings like a moving snake.

Walking around you'll first see what may have been carved seating for people to watch the ceremonies. Below are a series of niches (the first of which has been re-roofed in traditional style), which would have held mummies and gold offerings. The last eight or so were still being carved when the Spanish arrived and are incomplete. A wall at the eastern end may have been originally painted red with niches.

The route will take you past Inca agriculture terracing to Chinkana, a hole that may have been a well or an entrance to a labyrinth containing lost Inca treasure. The Spanish found nothing and the word Chinkana means 'lost'.

The rest of the site, sadly, is poorly restored. You'll pass the ruins of two Inca houses before passing into what was once the central plaza of a grand town (and now looks little better than a football pitch). Imagination is needed to conjure up the image of the large, 68-m by 16-m, 12-m-high Kallanka, which flanked the southern side. This had eight doors opening onto the plaza and was used for religious and military ceremonies.

The Akkllawas for Virgins of the Sun is mainly overgrown. Finish by climbing to the viewpoint from where the rock can be best appreciated. As this spot is the highest it is thought there may be another, even more important, carved rock below.