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Published: July 26th 2008
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Llama foetuses
stocked up on these while we could La Paz
We arrived in La Paz in the early hours of the morning resembling two blocks of ice. I didn't especially like La Paz; spent the entire time convinced I was going to be mugged. (Maybe there are nice bits which we didn’t see???). A good place to by a new travellers' outfit, if you fancy some stripey trousers and a llama jumper. The whole city is like a giant market - stalls everywhere; absolutely anything you want to buy can be bought from a stall - food & drink, fresh juices, toiletries and make-up, batteries, clothes, superglue (my shoe broke…), watches, stationery, CDs, birthday cards, teddy bears… I could go on. There are also shoe shiners on every corner - I didn't really want my walking boots shined, but given the right shoes, I would definitely employ their services. I purchased what I thought was a most bargainous Harry Potter watch. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to keep time, at least not the sort of time I’m used to.
The city is set in a valley and sprawls out up either side of the valley. The view of the city from up high is quite impressive, although it
almost looks a bit superimposed. The buildings all look orange; up close, they are all built with identical bricks and look like they’re not quite finished. The coca museum was quite interesting (I didn’t know that coca cola contained cocaine until early this century…) as was the witches’ market, where you can buy such delights as llama foetuses, so I was able to get in early with some Christmas shopping. Also managed to see the new Indiana Jones film - most exciting being set in South America.
The world's most dangerous road
The affectionately titled World’s Most Dangerous Road begins about half an hour out of La Paz, at an altitude of 4700 metres and descends 4500 metres or so, to arrive near Coroico, 64km later. At the height of its notoriety, there was approximately one death per day on the road. The danger comes from the fact that it is extremely narrow, winding and unpaved, with a sheer drop to one side of 100-600metres. So the obvious thing to do is mountain bike down it. Before setting off, everyone drank some of the miner’s alcohol (that’s the 96%!s(MISSING)tuff) and offered some to the Pachamama (Mother
Market stalls
Woolly hat or stripey trousers anyone? Earth) for good luck and no accidents. So there we were cycling down the World’s Most Dangerous Road completely intoxicated. Just kidding. It was a little bit scary at first, but I found it best to keep my hands firmly on the brakes, concentrate on the road in front, and not think about the sheer drop half a metre to my left. The scenery was fantastic though, descending from the dry barren mountains to the lush green and humid jungle. Each time we had stopped, our guide entertained us with stories of deaths that had occurred on the road, which was nice. There was one little uphill bit, which at 3800 metres was really quite hard work, and made my lungs feel like shrivelled beans. By the end my hands had gone numb from the vibrations, cycling over the rock ridden road and I almost couldn’t lift my beer. Almost.
The world's cutest monkey
The day ended at a place called La Senda Verde, an animal orphanage where we stayed for a night. Many of the animals are there because their parents were killed by locals, for food or fur, then the baby, taken as a pet, was
mistreated. There were spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, tortoises, parrots, macaws, a wild cat, a donkey, rabbits, and a couple of puppies thrown in for good measure, including a little black one called Carbon! One of the spider monkeys had a huge stomach - liver disease and ascites because its previous owners had maintained it on a nutritious diet of alcohol and chocolate.
Sitting enjoying a beer in the evening, I was quite surprised when one of the spider monkeys, Warra, jumped on top of me, gave me a huge hug, then buried her face inside my fleece - unbelievably affectionate having been raised by humans. So cute, at least until she pee’d on me. Luckily Harriet and Little Man weren't there or there might have been a bit of jealousy. The next day by the pool, just returned from her morning walk, Warra tried to join me in the pool. I'm not sure if monkeys can swim, so I put her back on the side where she proceeded to my sun lounger and lay across it in the manner of a monkey sun goddess - never had to fight for my sun lounger with a monkey before.
La Paz
a little bit of traffic, and about a zillion market stalls I reclaimed my sun lounger and she spent the next half hour or so leaping between Russell, me and my pile of dry clothes (requiring swift monkey removal after last night's weeing incident). Wished we could've stayed longer but instead we caught a delightfully squished minibus back up the new and improved World's Most Dangerous Road to La Paz.
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