Happy Canada Day Everyone! Along with this being Canada Day, it also marks my trip's half way point and the beginning of La Paz's month of Anniversary Celebrations. So all in all a jam packed day.

I'm now half way through our short 6 day stay in Bolivia. We started our Bolivia tour in Copacabana which was a nice little town with everything within walking distance. For our one day stay there we spent time walking along the lake and the rest of the town, checking out the sites. Our hostel in Copacabana had the best free breakfast so far though. You got a lot of food and so many options. It was very different from the usual free breakfast of buns and jam. At this hostel we got eggs, pancakes, cereal and yogurt as well as a bun with jam. Even though we had an awesome free breakfast our lunch in Copacabana was horrible. Alyssa and I agreed to share nachos and they were one of the worst things I've eaten in my life, I probably ate two bites. These nachos consisted of Doritos, cheese, a little meat, what looked like boiled frozen veggies and to top it all off ketchup was drizzled on top. They were totally nasty and I couldn't even force myself to eat it if I had to. But besides our horrible lunch Copacabana was a really nice, little place!

From there we hoped on a bus to take us to La Paz, which is the administrative capitol of Bolivia. To get to know La Paz we took a city tour today. Our first day in the city Alyssa and I went to a movie though becuase both of us are frequent movie goers and we missed it haha. Our city tour was nice, although shorter then I expected, and I learned a lot.

The tour started at the San Francisco Church where we learned a little bit of the history of La Paz. I learned about how when the Spanish came they wanted to keep the Spanish people and the indigenous people separate so the river became the divider. After a brief history we talked around the main square and outside the presidential palace. The current president is the first president that hasn't been of Spanish decent, but of indigenous instead.

July 16th is the anniversary day of La Paz and instead of just celebrating for one day they celebrate all month. Today the celebration began with a gathering of city workers and the national anthem was played. Some of the city workers are dressed as zebras. And we learned that they work at the cross walks, which are painted in strips the black road and white strips, hence the zebra. And these people are there to make sure vehicles don't stop on the cross walk and tell people when its safe to go.

As part of this tour we also walked around the outside of the prison which is located 2 blocks from the main road in La Paz. This prison is much different from other prisons becuase it governs itself, the inmates are allowed to have their families live in the prison with them and inside the prison is separated into sections based on wealth. There are also only guards at the main doors, no where else.

After walking around we caught a taxi to take us out to the lookout point where we got to see all of La Paz and the surrounding mountains. It was quite the view. I thought it was quite interesting to know that La Paz consists of 3 million people which is 3 times the amount that lives in Saskatchewan. I think that's pretty unreal.

To finish off the tour we went to the biggest market in La Paz and walked around as well as the witch market. The witch market was quite weird. They sell "offerings" to give to mother earth by burning them. The offerings are believed to change your luck in whichever area of life you choose, for example your profession. Along side your offering you can also burn a dried llama fetus for added luck. The dried fetuses were hanging everywhere and they were pretty gross looking.

The tour all in all was decent. Short, but interesting and I saw things I would have never seen on my own.

Our next stop is Uyuni where we start right into a 3 day, 2 night salt flats tour. Our bus to Uyuni leaves tonight at nine so our tour starts tomorrow morning. Our tour finishes by dropping us off in Chile so the salt flats will be our last Bolivian adventure.

Something odd I've noticed since being in South America is the frequency I hear the Titanic song, my heart will go on. It's on the radio and people play it in the streets too. One restaurant we were on even had the movie playing on one of the tv's. So just a little odd thing I've noticed since being here haha.

That's all for now. Not sure if I wil have WiFi at all on the tour so my next post will probably be in Chile after the salt flats tour!

P.S. I'm all caught up with my pictures now! I am going to try and not fall behind again, that was a pain in the butt! So I hope you enjoy them all!