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La Paz
We were up and about by 8am today as we made our way to the bus terminal. Arriving at the bus station around 9 we immediately set about finding a suitable bus. Eventually armed with tickets on the 9:30 bus we just had time to buy a couple of cheese empanadas for breakfast and some strange coconut, honey pastry things (which are very hard to eat!!!) before getting on the bus. It was a fairly uneventful journey through quite uninspiring scenery, until we reached La Paz itself however. The city is built in a valley between the mountains (and up the sides as well to some extent) and the sight of it as you drive down the hillside into the centre is unbelievable. You can see the huge sprawl of suburbs spread out for miles, interrupted occasionally by a sudden peak which rises out of nowhere, it really has to be seen to be believed... As you descend into the centre it becomes busier and busier until you reach the bus terminal which turns out to be strategically placed to avoid the gridlock should you try to continue further. After a quick trip to an internet cafe to find where our hostel was, and then a half hour trying to find it as it turns out the map was wrong we got settled in to our dorm room and soon decided we should go out and explore a little before dancing this evening. We walked around the centro area which appears to be the tourist centre rather than the actual centre of town as the streets are lined with tour agents and the usual tourist shops which sell the all the stuff no one buys. (both of us wonder how they stay in business!!) The city is just as amazing to walk around as it is to look at with tight, steep, twisting streets full of colourful building, market stalls, people in traditional clothing and the occasional rather impressive church or monument. We then walked down to the nightlife area and explored this area for a little while until it was time to go to a pub called Mongo's. We had found on the internet that there should be a live band playing Salsa here tonight and for once it turned out to be correct. At about 10 the bar started playing salsa and we had a couple of dances before a couple started doing a very basic lesson, this was quite welcome for us as with the altitude we coudn't dance for very long before being exhausted anyway. After the lesson the band came on and played a shortish set which we had a go dancing to on the crowded dancefloor. There then followed a short break when the bar decided to play bad dance remixes of old pop songs. (Why???) And by the time the band came on again it was so packed that dancing was impossible, we did give it a go but after a couple of very frustrating dances we decided to call it a night. We caught a taxi back to the hostel and had a drink in the bar where they kindly played us a couple of salsas and a few bachatas so we didnt miss out completely before heading to bed about 1.30am.
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