We returned to Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) in July after too-long an absence and were delighted to find a rare dusting of snow on the altiplano. My brother-in-law has visited this archaeological site more than a dozen times and has never seen snow. Such a treat!

We naturally had to visit the Semi-Subterranean temple, which is featured in a climactic scene in my novel. I love all the eerie human faces embedded into the sides of the temple walls.

If you’ve read my book Requiem in La Paz, then you can probably guess how much I adore this photograph of lonely human footprints in the sunken temple.

On top of Kalasasaya, the Temple of Standing Stones, the children collected handfuls of snow under the watchful gaze of a pre-Incan monolith. (Incidentally, this is not the famous Bennett Monolith that I mentioned in my last post, which has now been moved to the safety of an indoor museum.)

We paid a respectful visit to our old friend, the iconic Gate of the Sun. Here we can see the Staff God at the center of the gate, sometimes thought to be Viracocha, the creator god of the Inca. Since the Tiwanaku people did not leave behind a written language, we can never know for certain what these carvings represent.

At this point, only a small percentage of Tiwanaku has been excavated. We discovered some new excavation outside the temple, and then checked out the massive stone structures at nearby Puma Punku.

Was there dinner afterward? Of course there was. Here’s the view from the restaurant, and here’s our coca tea.