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Arrived to a cold and crazy La Paz via a snowy Alto city which is 500m above La Paz. La Paz is at the northern end of the Altiplano in a valley 3,500m above sea level. As a general rule we don't like cities, but La Paz is certainly an exception.
After checking into Loki hostel we took a walk around the city and immediately came across our first Bolivian demonstration. We dodged the fire crackers and headed for our first of many Saltenas (sweet pastry filled with spicy meat or chicken, fecking lovely!) We soon stumbled across the witches market, Aymara women with stalls selling everything from dried llama foetus to monopoly money, used for rituals.
We decided to treat ourselves to what was reputedly the best restaurant in La Paz that night, afterall, we had been used to 5* luxury of late! We ate and drank as much as we could, but still couldn't spend more than a tenner.
We didn't appreciate being rudely awoken at 9am the next morning by the maid barging into clean our room - so we moved to a hotel for half the price with hot water. Bonus.
In preparation for the cold Altiplano the following day we hit the artesan market in search of Alpaca jumpers, hats and gloves. Mission accomplished at a-llama-ingly low prices!
Visited Tiwanaku, our first expedition onto the altiplano proper. Tiwinaku is a pre inca settlement the people of which disappeared before the incan empire due to drastic climate changes. Impressive nonetheless and the views of the vast barren altiplano are worth putting up with the cold for. How people live up there is a miracle. After a llama steak lunch we descended once again to La Paz before our departure the next day for Uyuni.
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