Vapor Trails: La Paz

Although I`d planned to stay in Copa for a while, I decided to get out of town and head for La Paz - Bolivia`s biggest city.

It`s an incredible jounrey through the mountains, and even includes a boat jounrey, where you have to get off, and they transport everyone accross the lake. Here`s the coach on a Ferry that looked like it was going to sink at any moment:

Luckily I`d bought some popcorn, made from the huge corn they have here - here`s a pic of just three pieces of popcorn:

I`ve been thinking of how to describe La Paz, it`s such a hard place to sum up. I`ve taken some photo`s but none of them really do it justice.

When you arrive, you travel accross the flat plains of the Altiplano, and then sunddenly, there`s this huge canyon, and your zig zagging into the city with incredible views. When you get out, it`s jam packed with people, market stalls, traffic, deiesel fumes. It`s full on - all of the time.

I got a place to stay and went for a wander. That evening it started raining - no one stops - the city just carries on. It felt like I was in the film Bladerunner. The weather is fairly extreme. When it`s sunny it`s red hot - when it`s cloudy or raining it can get really cold. It`s almost 3,700 meters above sea level - and the air is really thin.

I`ve had a wander around for a few days and have been to:

- The witches market: Where you can buy everything from a Llama Fetus to incense to herbs (not that kind of herb though :-)
- The black market: Where you can buy just about anything. You tend to find that all of the same sort of business stick together, so there`s one street that sells clothes, another that sells elctrical stuff, and on and on. Think Skipton market on steroids and speed - but the size of Leeds.
- The main square: Just like any other.
- The look out: Great views of the city.
- The outside of San Pedro Prison. Read about it here. You can go on tours, but the thought was a bit weird. Alhtough I did meet someone whose been and is going back. It does sound really interesting - but still not sure it`s for me.

But apart from that I`ve not really done that much :-) except hang out, got some washing done, done some Internet, and chilled.

One story to end with. I`ve been craving curry - like really badly. And so I`m wandering through the streets when I spot a "British Indian Restaurant". So I noted where it was on the map and went back that night. I met a couple of Dutch girls I`d met in Copa, but they`d finished eating. Just as I was about to sit down, a couple asked me if I wanted to have dinner with them. So I said yes. Andy was from the UK, and Lisa is from NZ, and they`ve decided to move to Wellington, but had decided to travel there via South America. Because they spend so much time together they decided to invite other people to eat with them every now and again, just to have some different conversation. It was great - and the curry was good as well - not as good as home - but still good.

Here`s some pics of La Paz: First - the view while driving into the city: