la paz, tihuanaco & the death road

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From Copacapana it was an 4 hours busride to La Paz - the biggest city in Bolivia situated around 3600m high in the Andes on a marvelous plateau sourrounded by snow-covered mountains...
Arriving there I had to start to chewing coca-leafs and drinking coca-tea to adapt to the extreme altitude and cold temperature. Walking around in La Paz can be a hard task in the beginning because you get tired and exhausted so quickly. The first 3 days I went to bed at around 8 pm because it was so intense...
La Paz itself is hectic and huge, but very interesting to walk around and explore. Around the 4th day I made a one-day excursion to Tihuanaco - the most important bolivian archeological site - situated 50 km away from La Paz. Although guided badly and too much tourists there, it was a very interesting place from a highly developed pre-incan culture.
In the "oja de coca" restaurant I met Katha and Miri - to very smart students from Berlin. We explored a little the night-life of La Paz and visited a local market in the upper part (poor part) of La Paz where I nearly got robbed by trick-thieves...
Katha and Miri left to Chochabamba and I decided to drive down to Coroica in the Yungas via the "most dangerous road of the world" - a busdrive that defeat 2500m of altitude in 3 hours!
In the quiet little village Coroico I enjoyed pleasant semi-tropical temperatures and green nature for 3 days before I made my way back up into the high Andes...

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Photos

the metropolis of the andes
being situated around 3600m and higher it is difficult to breathe and very cold there - but amazing

la oja de coca - the coca leaf
captured in an excellent restaurant named after this ancient plant of the andes...

me at the puerta del sol
...the gateway of the sun...