South America Day 50 - Copacabana

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We have a bus back to La Paz at 13.15. First we are going to visit Horca del Inca, an ancient astronomical site on a hill just outside town.

We try to check out but reception is empty. We soon discover why – spitty llama is giving birth. It’s an exciting and unexpected start to the morning.

We walk through town where there is a festival taking place; people in their Sunday best, cars decorated with flowers, bands playing.

On to Horca del Inca, described by Google Maps as a 14 minute ‘mostly flat’ walk. 45 minutes and 389 steep stone steps later, we finally reach our destination. Quite a tough ascent at 3800m altitude.

We return to the hotel. We have just enough time to get some brunch and see baby llama one more time then it’s time to retrace our steps to La Paz – different driver, same white knuckle ride.

It takes two hours to reach the outskirts of La Paz and a further two hours to fight our way through the city traffic. This is where having a bonkers driver comes in handy. He fights his way through gaps that aren’t there and we finally reach the hotel having only hit one pedestrian. If I’d been driving, the same journey would have taken about a week!

Outside the hotel it’s gone crazy. It’s a 2 way street but traders have set up market stalls in the road so it’s a huge mix of cars and stalls and pedestrians all fighting for the same piece of road. We venture to a nearby café for tea then retreat to our room and leave the Paceñans to their own strange shopping-in-the-middle-of-the-highway thing.

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Comments

[Paul Kirkup]

Google maps
I get the impression from your experiences that Google Maps must be fully paid up members of The Flat Earth Society!

[Gillian Elliott]

No wonder the llama was spitting, think I did too when I was that pregnant! It looks as chilly there as it is here today after yesterday's heatwave