Country: Bolivia
City: La Paz
Duration: 5 days (some were resting days)
Accommodation: Loki Hostel
La Paz in Western Bolivia is one of the highest cities in the world at an elevation of 3,500m and 4,000m in Al Alto by the airport! It was built in a canyon that was created by the Choqueyapu River.
Day 1:
The bus from Uyuni to La Paz was the worst journey I have ever experienced! It was a terribly bumpy road for most of the night and poor Johnny was in the toilet getting sick for most of it! When we arrived at the bus station, I noticed again how hard it was to breathe. It's so important that you acclimatise to the altitude. My heart was beating so hard at times and often I had a pain in my chest/neck when going up stairs or walking uphill. So when we checked into our hostel, we went to bed for most of the day, only rising to get food and watch the second last episode (ever) of Breaking Bad! :D
Day 2:
After a refreshing day and night's sleep, we decided to check out La Paz by a free walking tour called Red Cap Walking Tours. (You just tip at the end.) We joined 2 tour guides and a handful of other tourists in the San Pedro Square opposite San Pedro Prison.
Johnny at the time was reading the book 'Marching Powder', a story of Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker and inmate at San Pedro Prison who ran prison tours to tourists! The author of the book, Rusty Young, joined one of the tours one day whilst visiting La Paz and he and Thomas hit it off and the two got a great idea for a book. Rusty then bribed the prison guards to let him stay in the prison and he shared a cell with Thomas for three months while he wrote about Thomas's experiences in prison and the unusual way that it is run! Our guides told us that the inmates run the prison themselves and that they have jobs and also have to rent their cells. So Johnny was very excited to be standing across the road from the prison and looking in at the inmates through the open front door! (Note: It is no longer safe to do a prison tour)
Our tour continued and we walked through Rodriguez Market, a vibrant street market where you could literally buy anything!
We then came across the Witches Market, where the culture of the Aymara people (native people of Bolivia) is still much alive. The colourful stalls sold dried llama fetuses and dried frogs for Aymara rituals, as well as herbs, remedies and potions. The llama fetuses are bought and buried under the foundation of a new house to honor Pachamama, the Aymara's goddess/mother earth.
Next on the tour was San Francisco Church and Plaza. On our free time after the tour was over, we revisited and went up to the Bell Tower and down to the catacombs.
We stopped and sat in Plaza Murillo which is the centre of Bolivian politics and it is where the president's house is situated, although he doesn't live there due to the fact that so many previous presidents have been killed and the building is very open in this square!
We finished our tour on the top floor of Hotel Presidente, where you could see the entire city below.
That night we ate in The Star of India, yummy!
Day 3:
After booking flights to Rurrenabaque, we walked to a nearby view point to see more sights of the city.
We walked to Jaen St to visit some museums that we read about but everywhere was closed as it was Sunday.
After booking flights to Rurrenabaque, we walked to a nearby view point to see more sights of the city.
We walked to Jaen St to visit some museums that we read about but everywhere was closed as it was Sunday. 
*The next morning we flew to Rurrenabaque in the Amazon Rainforest for a couple of days.
Day 4/5:
After a few days in the jungle, we flew back to La Paz and stayed in Loki again for two nights to recover and to wash all our smelly clothes from the trip! The next day, we visited the markets...again! We ate in a lovely Asian restaurant called 'Maphrao On' that did a good masaman curry!
The following day we departed from La Paz to Copacabana, where we would get a boat to Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca.
No comments:
Post a Comment