Day 54 - La Paz

How much do I LOVE La Paz? THIS MUCH. Right, I don't particularly have a thing for capital cities. Yeah, they are bustling and exciting and you can buy just about anything, and see parades and stuff. But usually, I'm more of a small town boy, where you can meet the locals and experience things a bit slower and quieter. But La Paz is SO different.



Right from the first moment our bus descended the one main road throught the city, from the high antiplano down into this valley CRAMMED with skyscrapers and amazing archtecture, I was glued to my window seat. The place is set in this dramatic valley, overshadowed by a mountain, with every piece of land built on in site. provided its not too steep. and even then, they seem to building new stuff on those parts.



The buildings are black with dirt, covered in hundreds of power and telephone cables, yet more ornate than some of the buildings I saw in Paris. The streets are clogged with market sellers, selling alpaca jumpers and llama foetuses. The people are short, beautiful and well-dressed. And the atmosphere is electric.







We checked into the hostel next to our friends and bombed out to find cheap restaurants - in this case an israeli all-you-can-eat. A rough night's sleep later, we were trotting around town, booking ourselves onto "the world's most dangerous road" bike ride (sam got the fear and din't join us). We bought ice cream on the street, and some dired San Pedro to take in Argentina. By nightfall, the 6 of us found a two lane bowling alley (with a worker who picks up and re-aligns the pins - this is progress) then spent the rest of the night laughing in our hotel room together.

After doing the bike ride the next day (I'll blog about this next time), Sam was feeling a bit left out, due to the sheer number of adventure sports we seem to be occupying ourselves with. So we bought some tickets to hitch a ride on the city tour bus (one of Sam's favourite activities). We bumped into the insane 40-year-old Dee from south africa (who we met in Ecuador), and her, Marcin and Sonia joined us.



The bus rocketed down to the posh area of town, which could easily have been any american city. Not a single poor bolivian or street dog in sight. Then up to the Moon Valley, where I chatted to some spaniards (my spanish is SO good right now).



And after a couple of hours around down-town, we went for a Lebanese dinner and went in search of a club. Dan and Sam gfot wasted (leaving me only half-there and having to talk to argentinians for most of the night), then I spent the night awake and manic, nursing possibly the worst and only case of stomach cramps I have had in my life. And as the sun rose, we had a full english breakfast and hopped on a 14 hour bus to the Salar de Uyuni, also known as the Salt Flats of Bolivia. The largest in the world, so big, you need a 4 day jeep ride to get around them. Its gonn be a highlight for me, but an even bigger one for Sam. She's even planning on crying if the landscape is as beautiful as everyone makes out.