23:30 - Transfer day... We all met for breakfast early at 7.30 and then waited for the bus that was to take us from Uyuni to La Paz. As we waited outside the hotel, the band of the Bolivian army decided they were going to practice in the open just in front of us. I am only sorry I coudn't take pictures (it's forbidden). They were not really in tune but they kept us amused until our old rickety bus turned up. What lay in front of us was 12 hours of part dirt road part paved road to La Paz. We spent the first 5 hours on doing offroad with the bus(crossing rivers etc) and came across an overturned bus that had overshot the river track during the night. Reaching the paved road did not come one minute too soon! To get to La Paz itself we had to drive through El Alto, the shanty town that surrounds La Paz. The traffic was horrific and it took us just over an hour to drive the last 12km. The view of La Paz from the top is something amazing. The city itself wraps itself around a canyon and goes from about 2800 metres to 4000 metres. It's truly a unique sight. The best was yet to come though. As we parked outside our hotel for the next three nights and went in, we realised we were finally in a really nice/decent/clean/etc hotel. The Hotel Rosario (Phil looked it up on the lonely planet guide) is the best 3 star hotel in La Paz. The rooms are really nice and after the last few nights suffering at the hands of Jolanda's extremely loud snoring, I asked Sally to get me a room to myself. It's going to be real luxury (relatively speaking) for the next few days. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, and even that was first class. Everyone was cheery and relaxed regardless of having spent 12 and a half hours in the bus. It was if course mainly due to our lovely surroundings :-). Even Philip who is notoriously wingey about accomodation has given 6 out if 10 to the place. Considering that two nights ago we gave a 0 out of 10 to our miners dormitory, it is high praise indeed. We have a leasurly day today and are meeting at 10 so that Sally can take us on a walking tour of the city centre. We will also be able to do some laundry (the hotel charges by the kilos) and so we'll offload some of the dust we have been carrying around for the last few days. My jeans can almost walk all by themselves :-).