The highest capital city in the world

We KNOW you must be really bored of us moaning about progessively bad overnight bus journies, but really, our one from Uyuni to La Paz was the worst yet. Maybe it will be beaten but for the moment it is the one that has become the most infamous 13 hours of travel yet. And to make it worse we were meant to be getting an overnight train, but due to our run of bad luck and a rail strike, the train was cancelled, the nicer bus was all booked up and we ended up on a `local bus`. Waiting for our rucksacks to be hauled up onto the roof we had ample chance to check out the bodywork of our rolling bedroom - every one of the rivets that held the top half of the chassis to the bottom was rusty or non-existent and the tyres had seen better days.

Bus stop

We knew that 200km of the journey was off paved road, but we weren`t prepared for most of that to be off-road full stop. As the sun set over the desert we were first amused and then quickly dismayed as our driver suddenly veered off the dirt track the other vehicles were following and struck out on his own tangent across the sand. The windows which wouldn`t budge open an inch to allow some air in while the bus was being heated by the sun, now let in clouds of choking dust and soon everyone in the bus was coughing and spluttering. When the bus went over a particularly rough bit of ground the rattle and squeaking made conversation impossible. So, we endured a bone-shaking, head-shuddering and teeth-clattering trip, which was only made slightly more bearable by the fact that we had bought a takeaway pizza to eat on the bus (knowing the type of Bolivian style trucker cafes they stop at) and got great satisfaction from taunting our fellow travellers while munching away at it.

La Paz street life

So, La Paz is the world`s highest capital city (at 3500m another Bolivian superlative) and as those of you who have been paying attention will know, is not the offical capital - that is Sucre - but is the accepted capital in practice. It is set in a 500m deep canyon and sprawls up and over the edges, creating amazing views both approaching it from the top and while down in the centre.

We had 2 nights in La Paz, which after being on the move for so long was really appreciated. Even then, we had to move hotels (just to the one next door, mind) after the first night as one section of our organised trip ended and another began. So, we said goodbye to Augusto, who has been a great tour leader, and 4 of our fellow travellers, with some drinks and dice games, and the next day met our new leader, Christina, and two Australian couples who will be joining us for the next 20-day Peruvian part of our trip.

Llama photo shoot

Most of our time in La Paz was unfortunately spent sorting `stuff` out (laundry, getting photos processed and our camera memory card put onto CD, trying to get our camera fixed which broke again in the Pantanal, finally buying a new camera after much searching and bargaining, emails, telephone calls to banks/hotels to sort out payment problems, Darren losing his cash card, reporting it stolen and then finding it again *Doh!* etc) which meant that we hardly had time for any sight seeing.

We did however manage to browse in the witches´ market (where Darren tried to get Angela taken in as an apprentice) and oggle at the mummified baby llamas and giant toads. They also sell dried llama faeces which are for good luck - so we completed all our present buying here :)

Selling on the street

We spent an informative hour or two in the Coca museum. We hadn`t realised how much coca leaves are tied to almost every aspect of the native culture: religion, work, health, festivities etc. The displays looked at all aspects of coca from all it`s traditional uses, through to cocaine production and crack addicts on US streets. There was a transcript of a poem which describes the Coca creation myth which been handed down through the generations. It tells how coca leaves will be life and energy giving spiritual objects for the Indians, but that as soon as the white man gets his hands on the leaves they will torment him and drive him mad. Oh, how very true. It was also interesting to find out that Coca Cola to this day buy 500kg of coca leavesa year from Bolivia for flavouring.

Witches market

La Paz is a hectic bustling city, with roads and traffic worthy of a Bolivian metropolis, strange smells and sights around every corner, and lots and lots of people on the streets. Mostly they have a small market stall, are selling a few goods from a blanket, or offering a shoe shine service. There are so many people on the pavements though that you invariably almost trip over them (or actually fall over them as Angela successfully demonstrated - and will bear the scars for some time!) or are forced to walk in the road and take your chances with the horn tooting vehicles.

We left La Paz via El Alto, which is the name for the poverty stricken suburbs of La Paz that spill over the rim onto the flat plateau that surrounds it. El Alto is now a city in it`s own right - reputedly the fastest growing in Latin America. It is vast, fetid and grim. Piles of rubble line the pavements (presumably they don`t clear it away once they have finished a new building) and plastic and rubbish is strewn everywhere, but is especially attracted to streams and rivers. As the unfinished one-storey red brick houses began to thin, we saw sheep, pigs and cows trying to graze on filthy brown scraps of land. It was all quite shocking. But in the distance are snow capped mountains and the dismal scenes are regularly brightened by a market with dozens of tiny stalls and hundreds of ladies in huge sparkly skirts and colourful shawls.