La Paz

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La Paz







After a most interesting bus trip from Puno we arrive in La Paz. The highlights being the countryside plus the ferry crossing. We are herded out of the bus and watch while our bus is loaded on to a boat, why we can’t stay aboard we wonder? We then have to pay to board another boat. As we are crossing the bay we watch in horror as our bus rocks from side to side in the swell, so glad not to be on board, reuniting with it on the other side.







As the Altipano ends, La Paz appears in front of us. Nestled deep in a canyon with the snowcapped mountains as a back drop, the red roofed houses clinging to the edges overlooking the town Centre. It is an incredible sight. Imagine New York City in The Grand Canyon.







La Paz is upside down, as the best parts of the city are at the bottom and everything else goes up or down depending which way you look at it. It is very dynamic, being a city on the up economically, yet still holding its backward charm. The traffic is horrific, mostly Toyota vans, old dodge buses and small taxis sprinkled amongst the odd Audi, Hummer and modern Hyundai weaving and dodging their way through the one way streets. The streets are too narrow for two way traffic.







The streets are full of travel agents, textile sellers, street vendors, voodoo medicines, strange restaurants, huge churches, colonial architecture and of course bowler hat wearing women. The story goes that many years ago an Englishman decided to import stylish hats to sell to the locals, failing dismally the local women took up the fashion and have been wearing them ever since. They look wonderful with their traditional costume with bowler hat on top. What a contradiction!



Bolivia what a place; economy going well till cocaine became illegal; as many leaders a year as month;, the end for butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid and of course the resting place for Che Guarvera.







I like my Hilux, I like the sharks, I like Friday night football, and I watch it with my friends, but I LOVE this town. What a place! Can eat great food at one end of a street, get robbed in the next.

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