An impression-ism of Bolivia

---

Our (mis)guided tour continued to get us to the Peru/Bolivia boarder crossing by bus from Puno. We´d heard that our original route idea through Copacabana (nope not THE Copacabana - place by the same name on Lake Titicaca) was having issues with bus driver strikes so we decided to go a more direct way around the lake. Our tour lady picked us up, and explained that the direct route was also having bus strike issues, so they took us in their mini van - it cost an extra US$20, which was heaps, but we didn´t have long in Bolivia, so decided to do it anyway - not sure if we were ripped off there. Would have been happy to pay for the ride, but im not sure about paying $20 to risk my life. The driver was an absolute maniac - doing 140km/h on a wet, pot-holed road was not cool, especially with buses speeding towards us and after I thought I was going to die on the boatride the day before - my poor, poor nerves!

The border crossing was really strange. We were bundled out of the van through immigration (without our bags, which luckily did meet us on the other side) and out the other end after a series of queues and formailities. The place was pretty weird; it was crowded with little old ladies sitting along the street at money changing desks, people carting things on bikes, people lining up for imigration, a few beggars, a few western tourists, buses (which we were assured were not ones we could have taken from Puno), taxis and, I dont know, it was just a bizarre place. We got to La Paz by taxi, and the 1 1/2 hour ride was a little nerve-racking at times passing through the immagration check points, but quite beautiful as we got closer to La Paz. Huge snow-capped mountains run in the distance along to way and a massive mountain stands behing the city, which is build in a canyon at 3660m above sea level.

It took us ages to find our hostel (Loki again) but were impressed when we got there. Its a half-renovated old hotel that was really, really fancy. Its still got the gaudy old paintings, curtains and fittings. Best bit was when we went to the bar for a steak sandwich and beer and it costs us about $3.50. Gaz and I also had our own room - hooray - which had been a bit few and far between till this point. Heaps of our ´family´from the Inca trail were at Loki too, and we had a good time catching up. One night was a huge party night, and we missed doing Death Road (the bike ride along a narrow cliff, where a few tourists have fallen off and died - maybe a good thing??) but fun.

We went to the Mercado Negro markets (black market), which had alot of crap, but Gaz picked up a warm jacket for New York and Canada super cheap (still no sign of his bags). It was raining really heavily, which was a pain, but fined up enough for some souviner shopping.

And apart from a night of partying, recovering and a day of shopping, that´s about all we did in La Paz. : )

La Paz was a little bit Monet (looks good from a distance, but a bit messy up close). I found the city to be a bit seedy. Obviously its a lot poorer than the other countries we´d been to in South America, but I dont know, I was pretty ready to be leaving there after 3 days.

---