Living the High Life

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When we arrived in La Paz, a city which, like so many others we ended up spending more time in than was probably necessary, we were pleasantly surprised.

The highest Capital city in the world (although Sucre is actually the official Capital of Bolivia) we had thought it would be a typical South American city, busy, noisy, hectic and dirty. It was most of these things but dirty was not one of them, in the 2 weeks that we were there off and on, the sun shone constantly and although you needed to wrap up warm, it wasn´t anywhere near as Mad Max as we had expected.

With a good nightlife and affable residents, it is an easy place to get caught up without really seeing anything of touristy interest. The witches martket with its lotions, potions and Llama foetus´ was definately a must see, as was the array of arts,crafts and clothes that could be purchased for next to nothing. We all (incuding Tom when he arrived) got ourselves some custom made leather jackets for about 25 quid, and other goods and prezzies at a great price, although the Bolivians are not as keen on haggling as their Peruvian neighbours and hard bargains were forced in Boiler Room style negotiations, picture the scene of debating over bulk buying gloves and all parties being satisfied with a pound discount if 3 items were bought!!!

Of course the arrival of Mr Batten had brought lots of joy and the excuse to splash the extra pound on a meal, the food being a surprisingly good affair, although less local delicacies (Llama Steak) and more tourist cravings satisfied. Having spent the previous week expanding our minds doing some good Spanish lessons, Tom´s arrival also gave us the excuse to party more and do less. We ate, drank and were very merry even at high altitude ( no mean feat).

We debated drunkenly cycling down the ´Death Road´ and soberly avoided the subject again, the much anticipated San Pedro prison tours were cancelled due to a nosey CNN reporter exposing the corruption and bribery within the Bolivian authorities, and therefore selfishly ruined an interesting experience for the rest of us. Although the idea of going to a place where the prisoners have the keys and deeds to their own cells, and a prison which contains, shops, restaurants and the families and children of the inmates, which is located in a gorgeous plaza bang in the centre of La Paz and although looks innocuous was a daunting thought. ( Marching Powder a must read for anyone who thinks this is a lie!!!)

That potentially dangerous couple of sightseeing tours off the board we bade farewell to La Paz, and with some awesome experiences and tales to tell, and moved on to our next couple of cities before hitting the Salar de Uyuni.

Before left we were however fortunate enough to be in La Paz for the largest festival of the year, La Festival de Gran Poder, which meant an array of brightly dressed groups with accompanying bands dancing there way through the city from early morning until mid-night, which was a great experience, marred slightly by some angry Bolivian women who didn´t like there view from the side of the road being obscured by infuriating tourists ( how dare they see whats happening!!!) and threw objects ranging from stones, to bits of food at anyone who appeared no0n Bolivian. This coupled with the fact (like any fiesta, anywhere) it was pick pocket central so we steered clear of the evening festivities and hit up some good bars instead.

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