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Published: April 7th 2007
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You Are Here
Glynn helpfully points out our current location. Seeing as we've been in La Paz for a good few days now, we thought it high time we got out a bit and explored one of the city's star attractions, the intriguingly named Valley of the Moon.
Before we set off though, we decided to introduce some new friends to the excellent veggie restaurant we've been frequenting. We first met Heather and Tom, a young Englsih couple, at our hostel in Cusco but they were off on the Inca Trail when we left and we never got to swap email addresses with them. What a nice surprise it was to see them turn up at our guesthouse here in La Paz! Alas when we reached the restaurant, the city was in the midst of a powercut and the restaurant had temporarily closed as a result.
We left Heather and Tom to explore the city centre on their own while we hopped on a number 43 micro bus bound for Mallasa and Zoological. For 2 Bolivianos each we were whisked off through the busy city streets and out into the suburbs. It took about 40 minutes to reach our destination and even before we went inside, we were
I Am A Rock
Many of the cool spires of rock were at least twice the size of us. Sorry, forgot to put someone in the photo for scale! pretty bowled over by the awesome sight of this natural phenomenon.
You may recall that when we were in New Zealand, we stopped off at a place called the Clay Cliffs. Well, the Valley of the Moon is a similar sort of place only on a very different scale. After paying our 15 Bs entrance fee (approx. £1), we found ourselves surrounded by an amazing display of rock pillars formed by a severe process of erosion. Where the Clay Cliffs had been like a small canyon with towering 200ft spires, the Valley of the Moon was more akin to a stone forest.
A path snaked around some of the best of the formations although due to continued erosion, we found the narrow ledges had occasionally fallen away into deep gulleys that we didn't fancy falling into. The pillars of rock were dotted with a variety of cool cacti and inhabited by some of the biggest ants I've ever seen - just looking at them made me itch! Just being there called up images of Mexican deserts from the movies and at any moment we half expected Clint Eastwood to come riding up along the valley.
The whole
Hello.....
Glynn tries to find signs of alien life. place was absolutely breathtaking with views not only of the eroded valley but also of the surrounding red rock mountains farther out. One peak was so pointy that it looked like you could prick your finger on its tip! Deeper into the valley, we walked across a wooden bridge that spanned one of the biggest chasms and were amazed to see that someone was actually living in the hollows of some of the eroded sections, like a cave house. There was even a cave housing a large fat pig and a couple of horses were tied up on one side of the main living quarters. Very strange.
As seems to be customary in La Paz, at about 3pm a dark storm started rolling in across the hills. At first we thought we would be caught out but instead the thunder and lightning rumbled past the valley and hung over the main city instead. Watching streaks of lightning blitzing the distant horizon was pretty cool, especially given our unusual surroundings but we decided to play it safe and leave the valley before the storm changed its mind and heeaded our way.
We managed to flag down a bus returning
Falling Away
Erm, that hole wasn´t there a minute ago! to La Paz but it was already bursting at the seams with passengers and Glynn and I had to squeeze into the footwell of the door to get on. Our timing couldn't have been better as it began to rain just as we set foot on the bus and by the time we reached the city again, torrents of water flowing like a river down the steep streets. Then, just as we jumped out at the Plaza San Francisco, the rain miraculously stopped again.
We also noticed as we made our way back to the hostel that the powercut which had started just before we left for the Valley of the Moon was still in effect. Shops were without lighting, the stereos on the pirate CD stands were silent and all the ATMs were dead. With less than 20 Bs in our pockets, we were a bit worried about money but luckily for us, jyst 10 minutes after we got back to Arthy's, the power came back on. The longest powercut in recent times in La Paz and we managed to miss all the excitement! I've got to hand it to the hostel though as they had brought out
Desert Bear
Jish takes a breather under the shade of a nearby cactus. Doesn´t look so shady to me though! a huge selection of board games to help guests while away the hours without electricity!
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esther
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wahnsinn
hey you both! the rocks really look funny and gigantic!!! strange scenery, very mystic! again - would have liked to join :-) take care folks :-)