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This is going to be a bit of a catch up journal entry as we´ve now been in La Paz for what seems like ages and we both now want to leave for various reasons (including both being sick from some food or other and the fact that I got hit by a bus today!!!)
This journal entry might be a little long, so be warned!After making our way from Copacabana to La Paz through the mountains, we were dropped right in the center. We wandered around the area a little and stumbled into the infamous Witches’ Market before deciding that we would go for the hotel we had first seen (which turned out to be a bargain at $5 a night including breakfast, private bathroom and cable TV!)
That evening we decided to wander around the Witches’ market – it was quite bizarre seeing stalls and shops selling allsorts of potions and ingredients including llama foetuses (eugh!) in amongst sports shops and the like.Whilst in La Paz we also visited the Coca Museum, a little place just around the corner from where we were staying. It gave a in-depth history of coca and cocaine from ancient times right through to the modern drug.
We also visited the Contemporary Art Museum which was pretty cool. There was quite a big exhibition going on and the museum just seemed to keep going and going into loads of different rooms. Lots of cool paintings and sculptures and lots of it for sale. Unfortunately I don’t have room in my bag for a bronze sculpture…
Later in the week, I decided to visit the San Francisco Church and monastery around the corner from our hotel. It was quite an impressive place and really well restored with modern lighting, etc. It was quite a massive place and you could even get up onto the roof to look over the city from the bell tower. Definitely worth visiting. It had a really nice café in the entrance too which I would have liked to have grabbed a coffee but didn’t in the end.
Yesterday, we decided to visit the pre-Columbian ruins at Tiahuanacu, some 70km West of La Paz. We thought we might get a bus there but Kim decided to check how much it would cost to get a taxi that would do the round trip and wait for us. Our guide suggested that it would be possible for about $20. Kim beckoned me over to taxi assuring me that the driver was offering to do it for $15. We both hopped in and went on the 1.5 hour drive to the ruins.
However, about halfway there we both thought to ourselves hold on cinquante is 50 right not 15?! That´s Quinze… So there we were, stuck in the taxi that was now going to cost us $50! Once we got to the ruins we tried to explain to the driver our mistake although it didn’t go down too well and in the end we gave him $20 for his effort to take us there and we said we´d make our own way back!
Anyway, Tiahuanacu wasn’t quite as impressive as I thought it was going to be from the pictures in books and on the internet. Nevertheless, the more we saw of it, the more we were impressed by its size and how advanced it was for its age. The museums on the site were quite impressive though and contained most of the monoliths and findings from the site.
After spending a couple of hours there, we decided we would have to try to get a public bus back into La Paz. We wandered into the town and found a bus waiting to go in the main square. Now when I say bus, it was more of a van with some seats crammed in it.
After waiting some 30 minutes for it to fill we eventually set off in an ultra-crammed vehicle (there were at least 23 of us in it at one point and one person on the roof). We were a little upset that it was going to cost us 70Bs (about 5 pounds) each to get back – we thought it was probably fair though for the 70km trip.
The journey was HORRENDOUS!!! The bus smelt so bad and there was absolutely no air at all! It was made even worse by the fact that there was an international cycle race that ran all the way along the main road to La Paz so the return journey took some 3 hours! We were pleasantly surprised however that when it came to give over our fairs we had misheard the price AGAIN! The price was in fact only 7Bs (about 50p) – a complete bargain (almost!). That bus was certainly something I’ll remember and if I ever complain about the tube in London, be sure to remind me!
Today we’ve not really done a whole lot apart from a little shopping in the shops around our hotel and wandering to the supermarket to get a few provisions for our 16 hour overnight bus journey to Uyuni, our next stop.
At Uyuni, we’re going to take a tour of the highest and largest salt plains in the world. We should see geysers and hot springs and even a volcano. We have just read someone else’s journal which says that on his tour their jeep rolled over three times, so we’re a little apprehensive but it should be fun anyway!Anyway, I’ll hopefully write another update after our tour of Uyuni and I’ll try to put up some more photos on the internet when I can. Over and out for now!
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