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Published: April 10th 2006
La Paz from Mirador above
La Paz is in a valley on the altiplato so the road in gives some great views. Sprawling.So we bumped our way from Copacabana to La Paz about 10 days ago, with Rach still reeling from the effects of sunstroke. The city itself is the highest capital in the world at about 4000m above sea level. Like many other capitals, it´s sprawling and overcrowded both on the pavements and on the roads and this, combined with the altitude makes it a hard city to get around.
However, ATM machines, fast food, 5* hotels and book exchanges have all treated us well and were very much appreciated.
Spent several days in the city getting our feet, shopping and eating and visiting the sparse sights. La Paz isn´t the most picturesque of cities, nor does it have a wealth of interesting museums or attractive plazas but it serves as a good base, having everything we needed.
We visited the Coca museum here, it was great to see the different cultural attitudes towards coca, from its indigenous use as a ´herbal remedy´to the use of coca leaves in the silver mines of bolivia to give energy to the miners and of course to the snorting off mirrors in various bars etc in the west...
Having exhausted La
Calle Lllampu
This is the road we are staying on. Street vendors, internet cafes and laundries.... Paz we booked ourselves onto Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking´s "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" bike ride. (Which seems to be one of the main reasons people visit La Paz). Basically the ride takes you from the top of the Andes at about 3800m down to 1400ish along 60+kms of winding, unpaved, cliff-edged road. We later found out that it gets the name from the 300 people and 50+ trucks which fall off the edges each year.... See pics as usual.
The next day, with sore wrists, numb arses and general aches we boarded a military flight to Rurrenebaque (the amazonian lowlands) which is where we spent the next 7 days (Blog to follow shortly)
Thanks for reading, hope all is well at home. C&R.
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MonkeyMan
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You lucky people
Good day to you both, I've been following the blog with almost stalker-like enthusiasm over the last few months. Still here at my desk on the Windows 2000 corporate machine. It's 8:31 and I'm counting the 7h30 till I can leave again. Don't come back, whatever you do. It's just the same here as you left it. Never changes. Still on the upside I only have 16 days left (including today) then I'll be off work and on the downhill run to making my own travelblog. No real news from home, Jim's back soon. Rob's depressing me and they're advertising for a new series of Big Brother. Take care and keep up the photos but write more SVP. Out, Chris 'MFD' Matthews.