Blogs from La Paz, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 123

We are in La Paz and it has definitely been ups and downs the last few weeks in Bolivia. Emotionally and physically. The 'altura' here (excuse the Spanish words peppered throughout, I'm trying out my knowledge so you'll just have to look them up if it doesn’t make sense!) is 3660m, which is higher than anywhere in Australia I think, pretty cool huh? Not that I haven’t been higher lately(mind and body), actually today I was at the highest altitude I have ever been, climbing Chacaltaya, a 5400m peak in the Cordillera Real which strikes right through Bolivia and has some wicked high snowy mountains to show off. The cool thing about it though (well, one of) is that when I was at the top I had a perfect view of the mountain that Greg is ... read more

Hey again, just want to say thanks to all those people sending in their comments, makes writing this journal all the more worthwhile. Now thats said, we can can tell you about our experience in the city of La Paz, the highest capital city in the world (even though it´s not the capital city, everyone seems to consider it the capital??). La Paz is known as the city that touches the sky, and sits comfortably inside a bowl shape surrounded by snow capped mountains on almost all sides. We got our first sight of La Paz coming down the mountain side from Copacabana, and were able to see the entire city from where we were. The bus dropped us off close to the centre of the city, and checked out a few hostels before checking in ... read more

It was MUCH, MUCH worse than arriving late to the front row seats at the theatre. When I first arrived in La Paz nearly one month earlier, I couldn´t have imagined that I´d still be around for the famous El Festividad del Gran Poder on the 10th of June. Dissapointed, but sure that I´d be long gone by the time THAT came around. Well, I got sucked into the void that is La Paz and so.... there I was, having stayed on an extra couple of days just for it, awoken on festival day by the sound of a brass band coming down the street outside my room. So anxious to get front row seats, while Pen and SHannon were sleeping I rushed down at 9am and put a 30Boliviano deposit (to pay for the last ... read more

La Paz is the worlds highest capital city at a altitude of 3,600. That means three things. First the city is in the Guinness book of world records, second it's cold and third you are out of breath if you walk up two stairs or a steep road of which they have plenty here. Not much to report from here as I spent most of the time either shopping, trying to send a parcel home, in my hotel room in my bed trying to get rid of the cold I got at Lake Titicaca or sitting in internet cafes writing travel blogs. My hotel is quite nice and I even have international cable TV but when you step out you feel like you are in Israel. The area around the hotel was completely taken over by ... read more

Having finally made it back from Rurrenbaque (finaly made it on a plane the next morning!),we check into our cool hostel- The Adventure Brew- strange but it seems that a Bolivian who is a mechanical engineer had caught onto what a hostel needs- free beer each night (created by the engineer/owner), and unlimited pancakes in the morning..one catch..the place was still under construction...so as u are there having a shower, there are these small Bolivians, working outside your window, occasionaly trying to peer through the foddy glass!! I had gotten quite worried when my flight got cancelled, as i was due to meet a friend of mine, Elliot, who was arriving from Canada into La Paz at midnight. after multiple failed attempts at trying to get onto a flight, i managed to organise for my friend ... read more