Today's been odd.

I didn't know quite how long to sleep for, as it was really unclear whether we'd actually do anything today. As it turns out, thanks to independence day celebrations, everything's delayed until Tuesday.

So it was a lazy start before a dash to the party hostel, Wild Rover, to watch the second half of the World Cup. Predictably, the local Frenchies were very happy with the result. It was then time to find some lunch.

My exploration of La Paz today was with Annouska, a now 3rd year English student at Christ Church - who comes from Ruislip (where most of my family live). Bizarre.

After seeing some of the colonial architecture of central La Paz, including a return visit to the Plaza Murillo and the Presidential Palace. After some tasty, if a bit greasy and leaky Saltenas, it was time to head to El Alto, to the market!

I think we spent about an hour today navigating the vast majority of La Paz's extensive teleferico/cable car network. It wasn't necessarily that we were lost (although we were for some of the time) it was more just the cable car network is very long and you do have to spend a lot of time going in the wrong direction.

That's not really a problem however. Given the stunning views afforded from the cable car.

We spent about an hour exploring the massive El Alto market. It's a fantastic place, a local's market not a tourist tat central. Despite getting ripped off on some overpriced socks by an lady pretending to be old and deaf, we generally found some good deals, including many meme-worthy t-shirts.

We then, accidentally, got lost on the far outskirts of El Alto when we took the wrong cable car, and had to brave a massive long queue to get back in the right direction. Luckily, the system, despite its very strict management, works very smoothly and the queue soon disappeared.

Finally, after a long day oogling at La Paz from above, seeing its many churches, cemeteries and skyscrapers, we finally made it back to home, the swanky suburb of Sopacachi.

It's been a long day, a funny day (I think i've spent a good 1/3 of it laughing at innocous things) but a fabulous exploration of La Paz.

Vamos!