Clare writes
Wow! Sorry, I seem to say that a lot. But La Paz is simply breathtaking... literally (at 3660 metres it´s the highest capital city in the world, so you do feel short of breath, easily tired, a bit headachy). And before any smarty pants people try to correct me and say that Sucre is the capital... they both are! Bolivia seems to have 2 capital cities.
It is strange to have come here (almost) directly from Valparaiso... from a city built on dozens of hills to one, equally or more impressively built into a valley in the high Andes, surrounded by jagged rocks and the odd snow-covered Ande (is that the singular of Andes... i don´t know and I can´t even find the question mark on this Spanish keyboard to ask the question). And although the buildings of Valparaiso were multi-hued, and here they are mainly red brick.... the colours of the local cholita ladies are fab!
We are staying in a very nice hotel, a bit too nice so we will move a bit more down-market in a day or so, but prices are very good here - 4 course Menu del Dia is less than 2 quid and so we´re eating better than we expected.

Sheila writes:

La Paz is overlooked by Illimani - a snow-covered mountain of >6000m and the highest mountain in this part of the Andes. So lots of pics of La Paz have this mountain in the background. Sitting 1000m down in the bottom of a great canyon eroded in the altiplano, it really is a strange location for a major city - and apparently they built La Paz here to provide some coolness from the searing heat of the altiplano in daytime and the freezing cold of the night (nevertheless its pretty nippy here at night! - I 've got three fleeces and polyprop longjohns on as I type this in our hotel room!

We visited the coca museum and we even tried chewing dried coca leaves like the locals do by stuffing a wad of leaves in your mouth along with some lime to help release the alkaloids in the leaves. The main (actually the only) effect you feel is a sort of numbness on your tongue. We've also been drinking lots of coca tea which is meant to help with altitude sickness. It tastes a bit like any green herbal tea! I also insisted on buying coca sweets (again to help with breathlessness as you're climbing hills) and they really work - their action when you suck them feels like cough sweets - opening up your tubes when you're congested. I'm looking forward to returning to sea level because apparently you feel marvellously fit (due to the effects of high altitude increasing your red blood cell count, hence increasing haemoglobin lvels and oxygen capacity of the blood).

We visited the Valley of the Moon today - further down the Rio La Paz canyon, south east of the city. It's an area of heavily eroded sediments creating a lanscape of amazing dense pinnacles. Its in this part of the city that all the rich types live (mainly drug barons we hear) and there are superb mansions and villas looking out over the eroded moonscape valley.