Cruz de los Andes La Paz

12DEC: Our last breakfast at Oriental was no different than any other day - jam and bread, banana, papaya and coca tea. It was about 8 o'clock when we suddenly heard a siren going. I wasn't sure, and still am not sure if it was only that Friday, or something that happens every Friday, but the whole town came to a standstill. Then we heard the Bolivian anthem (?) playing over speakers. People everywhere stopped dead in their tracks and saluted. Even people on bicycles and motorbikes stopped an...

At 7h40 we were already on our tourist bus, ready to start the journey via Copacabana to La Paz in Bolivia. I am quite excited to go to Bolivia, as I had to do the planning and was excited to experience and see this country of variety, but also to follow the routes of the well-known Che Guevara, who had a huge impact on the history of Bolivia as it is today. Our bus, 40 Soles (£10) was quite comfortable and seemed like a much better bet than our previous experience to Puno. We also saw a lot ...

We arrived in the morning to La Paz off of our night bus. The journey was pretty awful, the bus broke down for several hours in the middle of nowhere and it was so cold that there was ice on the inside of the windows. The first few hours were just on dirt tracks so it was really really bumpy and after a while the vibrations on the seats became uncomfortable. It also made it really difficult to get down the bus to the toilet without falling on to the other passengers - a task which Lee had to ...

8th - 12th October 2009:

The bus journey was more than satisfactory, in fact it was probably the most comfortable bus seats we have had on the entire trip, a nice change from sleeping in the aisle on the last journey. The toilet was broke but the bus stopped a couple of times in some fairly sinister looking places, the kind of places you resent paying to use the toilet because they look like the set from a saw movie or something. There were hawkers on the bus every half hour knocking o...

All ideas of walking from the bus station to the hotel went out tof the window when we arrived in to one of the higest and hilliest Cites in the world but hey after a day or too we have really toned calf muscles just a shame they are all wrapped up in thermals and no-one can admire them

Na 8 dagen in La Paz, begint deze stad langzamerhand mijn tweede stad te worden. In een klein deel rondom je hotel, loop je rond alsof je er woont. Je kent de plekken waar je lekker en goedkoop kan eten, waar je nog wat water kan kopen en daarnaast lijkt het chaotische verkeer gewoon zoals het hoort te zijn.

De dynamiek is veranderd. Kyra is nu in de jungle en daardoor onbereikbaar. Jan Peter en ik hebben uitleg gekregen over het reilen en zeilen tijdens de fietstocht. Nieuwe namen, ni...

Watched our pack-laden van cross the channel between San Pablo and his mate San Pedro de Tiquina on a piece of wood with sides, a small motor and a fit lad with his bailing bucket. Our vessel, a 12 footer with no apparent berthing limit, had a propensity for changing direction if any of the sternward passengers shifted their weight - or was that just tacking? Got across dry and were soon humming through lakeside mounts till we spied the leisurely town of Copacabana with its guardian Cerro Cal...