La paz

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Hello all

From where i left off, we had got to the border between Argentina and Bolivia. We simply got a taxi to the border then walked across a bridge to Bolivia. We knew that we wanted to get to La paz, but we didnt know wether to get the train halfway and then get a bus or just get a bus the whole way there, on route to the train station we went to the bus station and found a bus for 50 bolivians that is just over 3 pounds. For an 18 (suposedly) hour bus journey that i s as cheap as chips and we signed on the dotted line. The bus was not as luxurious as we are used to and the roads are not maintained-hence not the most enjoyable of journeys. Got to Lapaz at about 5am and went with an israeli girl to a hotel she knew, the hotel was full but we got a place at the hostel across the road, and went straight to bed.

In the morning I was suffering a bit with alltitude sickness as we were over 3500m up, but i chewed on some coca leaves to help a bit. We had a little explore around the area which turned out to be the tourist area of la paz. We had some lunch which turned out to be gringo food i.e pizza burges and soup. then headed back to the hostel. It was a long time ago when this happened so i cant really remember what order things happened so I am just going to list the things we did, and mum you will be pleased to hear that it was quite cultural.

Went to the 'best ruins in Bolivia' which were walled Tiwanaku which was a civillisation that predated the inca and the ruins were quite impressive with the main attraction being a huge monolith stone 'priest', also the general ruins were good aswell. On the way up out of la paz the tour guy told us some info and I found out that 85%of La paz lived in poverty on a Bolivian scale, and you could tell it was the most third world country so far, but it was also the most traditional.

We also did a trip down the worlds most dangerous road on some mountain bikes, great fun but also daunting- some one on one of the many bike tours had died 3 weeks preiviously. seb and dan had to both swap there bikes due to gear problems-due to the danger probaly wasent the best idea to go with the cheapest group!

Funny story we were having dinner at our local when we started chatting with a couple of aussies on the table next to us, we thought it was strange that they were with this local greasy guy. But during our starters we realised that they were buying drugs from his freind, it was a tiny restaurant and everybody must have known about it, yet noone cared.

We also did some shopping got some wool garments- its so cheap there 3 pounds for a wool handmade hoodie, bargain i think.

that preety much sums up La paz next stop Lake Titicaca.

lots of love pete

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