Living it Up in La Paz

La Paz has a population of 1.5 million who seem to be have been dropped from a high into a bowl like canyon at 3660m above sea level. With hundreds of thousands of tiny houses clinging to the side of steep chasm and the majestic snow capped tripple peaked Illamni commanding the background, it truly is a breathtaking (quite literally) place.

Once in La Paz we eventually managed to get accommodation in a hostel but decided to stay just one night as I didn´t think it was fair to share an outside toilet with others whilst I suffered from a dodgy stomach (and it was also really cold at night). So we hunted around for another place and decided to move into the Hotel Continental the next day.

We wandered around the city for a while and both of us commenting to each other how much we liked the buzz and feel of the place. One of the first things we noticed was the thousands of small mini buses which ferry people about the city. These buses have an onboard salesman shouting out the bus´s route, it usually went a bit like this..... NitshilPriesthill!!!! CraigbankGowanBank!!!!!HousehillmuirHousehillwood!!!! OldPollokNewPollok!!!!! come get on, only two more spaces!!!!! or La Paz´s equivalents all shouted out rapidly and repeatedly ad nauseum.

The place also reminded us a little of one of our favourite cities Saigon with everything available to buy on the pavements but this time the locals are decked out bowler hats and not conical ones. We walked about the witches market where they sell llama fetuses (apparently they bury them underneath new buildings to bring good luck), some were quite small and dried out like skeltons and others where 3 to 4 feet tall with fur on them. Many other weird and wacky things that supposedly give you luck for various things were available in this market.

Another thing that struck me was that Che Guevara´s legacy is a lot stronger here than it was in Argentina, In Argentina you where more likely to see Maradonna, Evita or Carlos Gardel (tango legend) monikers on postcards, posters and t-shirts than old Ernesto. In La Paz Che´s iconic image is everywhere from graffiti to jewellery, maybe this is a guilt thing due to them largely ignoring him when he tried to rouse the country into revolution before he was captured and killed in Bolivia in 1967.

On our second day we moved to Hotel Continetal, the hills in La Paz are extremely steep and when you a have your big rucksack it is a bit of a killer. We where quite lucky as our new hotel had an inside toilet and tv!! luxury. The hotel is situated in party street where they have loads of shops selling all you would need for a kids party with millions of huge foam characters, loads of confetti & streamers and masks galore.

In the afternoon we decided to take a break from the hussle and bussle and went to the musical museum, yeah sounds great but you are allowed to play quite a few of the instruments and like big kids we spent sometime banging and trying to get tunes out of some drums, organs, bottles and brass instruments. I dug into my distant past Euphonium playing days and managed to get a tune out of the various brass instruments lying around, Joanne quickly quipped this was due to me being full of hot air.

The food in La Paz seems to be of a slightly higher standard than Tupiza (which wouldn´t be hard) and we have had some nice meals. We went to a bar called Mongo's which is probably the most western type bar, it has Log fires and dull lighting, the food was also great!. We would end up here on quite a few occasions over the next few weeks.

On the Sunday we wandered about the markets on the main street and had a look round the museum for contemporary arts. On our way back to the hotel a large group of people appeared in fancy costumes and started dancing around. We soon realised this was being filmed for a movie and we manged to get some great photos of the performers.

It was early to bed as we had to be up at 4:30 to get on the bus so we could beat the roadblocks (or so we thought)!!