Stuck in Copacabana we had a fruit juice and then watched the Tour de Bolivia pass through the city streets. It was quite amazing, 15 minutes ago you`d never know there was a cycling race about to pass through the city. At 3:15pm we re-boarded our bus and by 3:30pm we were back on the road to La Paz.

The views leaving Copacabana were tremendous; rolling undulations of the altiplano scattered with campesions tending to their livestock, and for the first 2 hours we were still somehow passing / surrounded by Lake Titicaca - it´s huge! We came to the point where we knew we´d have to cross a section of the lake, but instead of a bridge we watched in surprise as the passengers took a small ´ferry´ across the water with a single, over-laden engine, while the bus bobbed over on it´s on, rather unstable-looking ferry! Once across the channel we re-boarded and continued across the altiplano with snow-capped mountains to the east. When we reached La Paz we knew about it; first we passed through the city of El Alto, which is absolutely rammed with campesinos trading in the streets and many, many collectivos. As we came over the edge of the altiplano we saw the most amazing view of La Paz filling the valley below... thank goodness we made it there just before dark!

The bus sped into the centro as we watched more chaos occuring outside - Mum said she´d never seen so many people as that drive through La Paz, but then she does live in deepest, darkest Herefordshire! Annoyingly the bus terminated outside the company office, on the main tourist street of Sagarnaga. There wasn´t a taxi in sight, but a nice old man flagged one down for us and we took off for our hotel in Sopocachi. The taxis vary wildly and it´s a hjob to know which are the more official and safest, but we have had good luck and really nice drivers throughout our stay here. It took ages to find the hotel, tucked away down a little alleyway, and it took the taxi driver to call the owners for us to find it.

We were greeted at the gate by Ludivic, the french owner of Hotel a la Maison (no big surprise there). We had our own apartment that were really fancy - hostels will be tough after this! Alex got her own room because she was poorly, but I´m fairly sure that I got ill the moment I entered Bolivia! I asked Ludivic where to go for dinner and endured a full on debate between him, another french guest and a guy from Newfoundland about the best place to go. Apparently the two french found it hilarious that a Brit and Canadian could possibly talk about good food. They were excellent fun.

We left Alex in bed and Mum and I went for an italian meal, which is apparently run by an Milanese chef... but he has a girlfriend in Cochabamba, and everytime he goes to see her the food goes downhill. This was one of those occasions and in fairness Mum had to send her lasagne back because it was cold! We took a taxi back and told our hotel friends how we got on - they were dying to know who was right! Of course it was the french!

Day 111 - We all had a nice lie in and woke up to find breakfast in a bag hanging on the door handle! We headed out for a mooch about La Paz, which started at San Pedro prison. I head read about the prison in the book called Marching Powder, about a Brit who was imprisoned there for drug trafficking, and I was dying to see it for myself. While we were looking at it from the plaza outside, we could see a huge queue of visitors waiting to get in. We then walked through central La Paz, visiting the Witches Market that sells all sorts of potions and souvenirs, including llama fetuses. Next stop was the Iglesia de San Francisco and then a walk down the main street called the Prado to find a restaurant for lunch. After some confusion we all had trout, which was a relief because something definitely got lost in translation between us and the waiter.

We took a taxi up to the Mirador Killi Killi for views of the city, and then walked back down to Plaza Murillo, which is lined with a Cathedral and Presidencial Palace (where we chanced upon the changing of the guard). Being a Sunday the plaza was full of Bolivians hanging out and chasing pigeons. Back on the Prado we found the traffic diverted and police lining the streets; as we waited expectantly to see the Tour de Bolivia continue through, we were instead surprised to find that the police quickly packed up and normal service resumed without any indication of what it was all about!

We went back to Sopocachi and to Plaza España to enjoy another mirador and walked back to our hotel, where we spent the rest of our Sunday afternoon / evening all sat on mine and Mum´s bed watching Rocky and eating chicken noodle soup from the Japanese restaurant down the road!

Day 112 - Our 16th semaniversary and Mum´s last day with us. In the morning we had a fair few jobs to attend to, starting with an internet cafe and a mid-morning coffee in a little courtyard. We finally made it to the Chalalan Ecolodge office to pay Neil for our trip to Rurrenebaque tomorrow and it suddenly occured to me that it was probably booked under my old passport - a very crucially timed thought since our Patagonia trip is also booked with the same passport and Mum was about to leave the country with it tomorrow! Then back to the internet as I spent a frustrating few minutes dealing with Bolivian internet connections and Alex had an equally frustrating time trying to call our insurance company in England (to see if we are covered to cycle the ´World´s Most Dangerous Road´ when we return.). Then a rosti for lunch in a Swiss cafe and then to Plaza San Pedro to start a walking tour of the city. Amazingly, Douglas the administrator identified me and waited with us until our guide - Gabriel - showed up.

The tour got off to a slow start, but we ended up really enjoying ourselves and knowing so much more about La Paz / Bolivia than when we started - it was really worthwhile. With just the 3 of us on our own private tour, we first took a trufi (taxi that takes a set route) up to El Alto on the top of the altiplano. The area used to be a major epicentre of campesinos trading with one another, and has now become a city of 1 millon (wealthy) inhabitants. We visited the Museo de Arte Antonio Paredes Candia, which is a former water tower full of an eclectic collection most oriented around the indigenous Aymara people courtesy of Señor Candia. Gabriel talked us through a lot of the pieces as we talked about politics, religion and other things. We especially enjoyed the figurines of Ekeko, the God of abundance, and every 24th of January people give Ekeko miniature items that they would like to have during the following year.

After the museum we walked across the watershed from Lake Titicaca to the Amazon basin on the edge of the plateau and we could see the full city with it´s huge, snow-capped mountains behind. We walked down the side of the valley and through a poorer neighbourhood that had been subject to a community improvement project, and was actually really nice despite the huge number of street dogs. As soon as Gabriel (somehow) guessed I was a geographer, he was keen to tell me all about the changes to urban planning happening in la Paz and El Alto (he is a fellow geographer too). The city is built on former lake sediment and so is really prone to landslides, but they have started to create efficient drainage, planted vegetation and specified no-build zones. Most of the houses used to be adobe, but apparently everyone in La Paz is enjoying a sort of boom and so are now constructing houses with brick.

At the bottom of the community we caught one of the colourful, local buses back to the centro with the sweetest, steadiest old driver and lots of women in their tiny bowler hats perched on their heads. We disembarked near the commercial area of La Paz and walked through the market streets of furniture shops, pirate DVDs (apparently you are allowed to pirate anything so long as it isn´t Bolivian), electronics and fruit. Gabriel bought us some pakaii, which is a strange and really tasty fruit and as I went to put the peel in the bin, a shop owner came running out and started telling me off! Gabriel tried to smooth things over, but he struggled to keep a straight face! At the end of the tour we all shared a taxi back to Sopocachi and Gabriel promised to send us some Bolivian rap music.

In the evening we went to Plaza Avaroa to a really good Vietnamese restaurant recommended by Gabriel.

Day 113 - The alarm went off at 4:30am, but Mum was wrigglign about long before that. Ludivic had left us some juice and bread on the door handle, and Mum made me some jam sandwiches to take with me to Rurrenebaque - some things never change! We got Mum checked in and I helpfully filled out her forms wrong before having a coffee in the cafe. Then the time came for Mum to take herself back to Herefordshire... at least we´re returning her in better shape than when she arrived!