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After our first decent sleep on a night bus, the bags buried under our foot rests, we awoke to a sight of mount Illimani at 6439m towering in front of us. Its snow crested peak was something to behold in the drier antiplano region of Bolivia. After driving through what seemed like the outskirts of La Paz for ages, we realised it was in fact Viacha when we approached the crest of the giant crater in which La Paz actually sits. The view was outstanding and not capturable on camera in a moving bus. The houses and buildings were everywhere, right up onto impossible slopes which in the UK we would never build on!
We caught a taxi from the bus station for less than a pound and realised that the traffic we had seen in Santa Cruz was nothing compared to this! We wound our way through streets lined with market stalls and street sellers to our hostel, Cruz de los Andes, on a relatively quiet side street. This place was decorated fantastically. Firstly we had only booked a twin room to compromise between budget and privacy, but found ourselves in a room with double bed, 2 single beds,
private bathroom and balcony for the same price! And the decor...our room had a giant mural covering more than one wall and the door, apparently by a local artist. This was enough to inspire Soph to grab the camera and get shots of ur wall, the murals on each landing and the murals in as many bedrooms as she could find her way into!
For our day in La Paz we decided to loosely follow the Lonely Planet walking tour to cover the major sights. Aware of the scams and dangers listed in La Paz (backed up by signs at the bus station and our hostel) we left most of our stuff in our room and headed out with small bag worn under Soph's top and water carrier on me - a habit we had fallen into since Uyuni.
We started outside Iglesia de San Francisco in the plaza and instantly spotted the famous balaclava clad shoeshine boys in the square, Fortunately or unfortunately for the experience, it is impossible to polish sandals, flip flops or dusty walking shoes. When reading that the walking tour took two to three hours, I and they hadn't banked on Sophie perusing
every stall and shop on the way up Sagarnaga. Lunch at Casa de Asia put a stop to this, giving us a Thai, Japanese and Indian variation on an almuerzo which satisfied a craving for spicy food and filled our veg quota for the day. After lunch we wound our way through Mercado de Hechiceria (witches' market) and Mercado Negro much quicker due their favourite item.. dried llama foetuses!! Sophie was definitely not in a rush to see these. They are sold as good luck charms and buried under the doorstep of new homes... still, definitely leaves something to be desired. We ended up in Plaza Pedro de Murillo and admired the colourful buildings surrounding it, though the pigeons en mas being fed by locals were enough to drive us away!
In the evening we headed to Pizzeria Italia for you guessed it... no you didn't, Soph had a hamburger and I had traditional beef res with criolle sauce. Will have a pizza another day!
How Sophie Sees It I actually had to duck to avoid being whacked in the face by half a dozen llama foetuses today! Unimpressed. There was a funny smell in the air
too. On the upside I made some excellent jewellery purchases today, including some for myself!
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Katie
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Shoe shine boys
Getting very over excited with memories here! I satyed in the same hotel as you, isn't it gorgeous....very unique! And as for the shoeshine boys, you've got to hand it to them they're determined! I lost count of the number of times they tried to polish my flipflops hehe! xxx