We were taking it easy this morning, our bus to La Paz wasn't until 1:30pm. We didn't even manage breakfast, only a few cups of coffee in our room before we checked out at 11am. We still hung around in the garden, in the sun, until 12:30pm when we made our way down to the bus stop of Vicuna Travel.

There seemed to be too many people waiting for the bus so just in case, when the bus door opened Maria jumped on to reserve two seats (the front two even) while David sorted the bags out in the luggage hold.

As the bus pulled out of Copacabana we saw a first ever sight in South America, or even Central America - three older ladies in traditional dress, arm in arm, staggering down the street, ****** as *****.

It only took an hour for the bus to drive to the ferry. Ferry is probably not the right word to use because everyone had to get off the bus and make their way across the lake separately. While the people paid Bs.2 each to travel on a small lancha, the bus was put on a rickety old barge powered with a simple outboard engine probably more suited to dingy.

The bus made it however and with us all back on board it was another relatively boring two hour drive to La Paz apart from the police check. Not far from the ferry there was police check point for a drug search. They picked two bags at random from the hold and one happened to be of an American guy. He was furious and demanding the American Embassy to be called. Needless to say his demands went unanswered and after a clean search his bag was back on the bus. A few s******s were heard as he got back on the bus and we were good to go.

On the outskirts of La Paz, in La Alta, the traffic was chaos. Drivers took no notice of either traffic lights or the traffic cops but somehow, despite the slow pace, managed to avoid gridlock. La Paz itself, built into the valley looked huge. There were even some cable cars like in Manizales to get from the valley floor up the side of hill.

We arrived at 5pm in the city centre and it was bustling with people. We took a short walk through the busy streets, past all the random stalls set up on the pavements, to Arthy's Guesthouse. There was a small, yellow, metal gate in a wall which opened up into this huge area inside. There were 10 rooms with shared facilities and enormous living area.

Andy and Carlee arrived yesterday and already had a good idea of the city centre, having been on the walking tour. They directed us to Sol y Luna, a Dutch Bolivian bar/restaurant that made food from all round the world, for dinner. David went for the Filipino Malak Muy something, a chicken and vegetable dish cooked in a ginger, beer & honey sauce. Maria decided on an Indonesian dish of rice with chicken skewers and peanut sauce.

We had a very cheap beer back at the hostel while we worked out accommodation for Sucre where we'll be heading to next week.