!¿Feliz Navidad?¡

I'm not sure if I put the ? and ! in the right place but oh well...

Well, we're in La Paz. Today is Saturday and we arrived on Wednesday. Its definitely a very different place. Its completely crazy and hectic - when we first arrived I think we were all a bit shocked but have grown to like it. The area we are staying in is the downtown area - the centre of the city but it's not like a normal city.

Our street has market stalls on both sides and they sell the craziest things. Instead of having a hardware store, they sell everything at the markets. Ones that sell nuts and bolts, locks and other bits and pieces; huge buckets of latex and other chemicals; sinks, toilet bowls, baths and other plumbing supplies; and also fruit and veg stalls. Some will just sell spring onions in huge piles that look like they've just been dug up from the ground. Other ladies will have just small plums and pears and sit on the ground and arrange them into little piles on top of each other. There's also a little section of a few stalls where they seem to be selling loose colour pigments my weight. And of course there are spice, nuts and grain stalls too.

Also close by is the witches market. Not as big as I thought it was going to be - but the various stalls sell weird ground pastes as well as dried llama foetuses! I read that if you bury them in the foundations of your house, it's meant to bring you good luck! There's also a street with loads of traditional crafts - scraves, hats, ponchos and shawls etc made fom llama wool which is all really nice; worry dolls and little purses and lots of jewellery which is all really nice. I bought a silver llama charm for my charm bracelet!

They don't have much public transport but instead they have a cross between a bus and a taxi - People drive around mini-vans with specific destinations and there will be somebody yelling out the window all the destinations they are going to. We've been mainly getting taxis but today Ria and I got on one of these vans to come to San Miguel - which I guess is the ritzy area of town. It only cost us 1.50 Bolivianos which is 10p! Speaking of traffic, traffic lights seem to be sparse and drivers mostly beep as they get to an intersection and then just drive. Almost every cab ride has involved some sort of near miss with another car!

We've pretty much been taking it easy - there are a few museums we could see but we've already seen loads and apparently the ones in Peru are much better. We did go to the Valley of the Moon the second day we were here- Its about 30 minutes away from the centre, and actually close to the area I'm in now - San Miguel. Basically, they're just ctrazy mud and rock formations caused by the weather but it was pretty cool and did feel like we were on another planet if not the moon.

Other than that, we've just been walking around and taking it easy in the hotel as well - we've got a few very busy weeks ahead of us with the Inca Trail and everything so it's nice to relax when we can. All in all, I wouldn't say that La Paz is a beautiful city really, but it's definitely the most different place we've been in, and seems like you would imagine South America to be.

Today we have our welcome meeting with our new tour guide and 2 new people in the group and tomorrow we travel to Puno in Peru. We'll be together for Christmas Eve but on Christmas Day and Night we are staying with a family on Lake Titicaca. The people that live there have maintained the same way of life for hundreds of years and they live on islands that they make out of reeds that grow by the lake. Apparently, they will dress us up in their traditional clothes too! Should be an interesting christmas but I'll be missing Christmas lunch, pudding and mince pies :(

It hasn't felt too much like Christmas, but today when Ria and I were walking around and everyone was doing last-minute things and shopping it felt more like home!

Merry Christmas everyone!

lots of love and christmas hugs,

xxxx