We have just finished nearly a week in La Paz, and it has been far better than we are expecting. The highest capital city in the world doesn’t have the best of reputations, but we have really enjoyed it! In the city itself we have spent quite a while just wandering the streets, seeing the famous San Pedro prison and the witches market (where our hostel is located). We also visited the Coca museum and took a bus tour of the city which gave us this gem of a statistic.
* “The average life expectancy of males in Bolivia is 60, and females is 63. And the retirement age for the country is 65!!”
Yesterday we decided to visit the ruins of Tiwanaku for a whole day trip. It is meant to be an hour and a half journey to the site, but due to some unforeseen strikes all the roads were blocked leading out of La Paz. This didn’t stop our determined tour guide and bus driver though! We went well off route for a couple of hours, and ended up crossing 2 river beds (at one stage i was sure the bus would topple in) and we all had to get out of the bus on several occasions so it could make it up some steep slopes! In the end the 1 and half hour journey took 5 hours, but as they say.. it´s the journey not the end destination makes travelling so great! Anyway… the ruins themselves were quite spectacular too, so overall we had a great day!
Tomorrow we take the bus to Cochabamba from where we will take a 3 day tour of the Toro Toro national park.
Photos from the last few days:
Ah I’m jealous, Marching Powder about a guy in La Paz prison is one of my favourite books, I’d love to go there – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marching-Powder-Rusty-Young/dp/0330419587
There’s going to be a Marching Powder film next year too. It’s being made by Brad Pitt’s production company and it’ll star Don Cheadle. Should be any good.