Up until now I havent really mentioned much about the group I have been travelling with...or more accurately our tour leader. He was a complete prat (polite version of what I really thought) and our journey to La Paz really topped off the whole episode.

We returned from our visit to Lake Titicata to discover that rather than spending the night in Puno we needed to pack our bags and leave immediately for La Paz. Apparently the teachers in Peru had decided a strike was necessary and were planning to block the roads out of Puno from the next day...Most people agreed therefore that it was a good idea to leave that afternoon rather than risk being trapped in Puno (which to be fair was a bit of a hole!). So within an hour we were all on the bus, settling back into our seats, ready for a short nap when the bombshell was dropped and it was the beginning of the end for our tour leader...

...it seemed in his "concern" to get us out of Puno he had "forgotten" to mention a rather important bit of information, ie that the hotel in Puno wouldnt give him his money back for the night we hadnt used so as a consequence we would need to pay for the extra night in La Paz. Needless to say the natives werent happy and it all kicked off. Big dramas, lots of shouting on both sides and then a bit of a stalemate as he told us we had no choice so we said we?d sleep in the hotel reception on a sofa...But on we went, no-one talking, most people fuming and bubbling inside, after all we?d paid for all our accommodation and transport up front and just because he hadnt done his job properly wasnt our fault and therefore not up to us to sort out.

We crossed the border into Bolivia and immediately felt the effects of the Bolivian weather. It was freezing and when we got to the other side we had to get on a different bus which had no heater. So to add to the already chilly atmosphere, nobodys mood was improved by the plummeting temperature over the next 3 hours! And our tour leaders incompetence was further reinforced when he didnt even know that there was a time difference between Peru and Bolivia.

So then we arrived in La Paz...scene of the final showdown. The hotel we were supposed to go to apparently didnt have room for us when we arrived, so after more waiting some of the group said they?d had enough and just got off the bus with their luggage and walked off into the night...leaving the rest of us to ponder our fate. We were eventually taken to another hotel where we eventually got rooms (and didnt have to pay for them), but there was no hot water and no heating and the rooms were freezing. Admitedly better than a sofa in reception, although not much, we got a few hours sleep.

What a welcome to Bolivia...but the next day things improved slightly as after a few more arguments we got ourselves moved to the proper hotel, complete with hot water and heaters...and thankfully said a not so fond farewell to our tour leader!

So onto La Paz itself. Being at nearly 4000m, and the highest capital city in the world, it is slow progress making your way around. But fortunately there are plenty of artesan craft shops to break up the climbs up the hill and then of course you can stop on practically every street corner for some sort of empanada snack if you are hungry.

There are a few sites worth seeing in the city, such as the churches, the plazas and the coca museum. Having munched my way through a fair few coca products to help with the altitude I felt it was only right to go and find out more about it. It was an interesting little place - found out that Sigmund Freud was the first cocaine addict and that Coca Cola actually contained cocaine until 1912! Other than that there was just a lot of shopping for alpaca goods, trawling the streets for the best bargain. And I also visited the highest football stadium in the world, not particularly grand by British standards, but worthy of note for its position and the fact that athletes and footballers can actually train and play here. It took me all my effort just to walk there and through the gates, never mind do anything more strenuous like breaking into a jog!