Breathless in Bolivia

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  La paz, Bolivia
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

When I was 16, I saw two films at the cinema within a few weeks of each other: Che!, starring Omar Sharif as Che Guevara, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Paul Newman and Robert Redford). Both films featured Bolivia, and portrayed it as the most out of the way place it was possible to get to, the end of the line. I was instantly hooked, and the fact that Butch, Ernesto, and The Kid all died in a hail of bullets down here didn´t put me off either, it just seemed to add to the allure of the place. After all this time, I'm finally in Bolivia. 
At around 13,500 feet (4,100 metres), La Paz Airport is the highest commercial airport in the world. La Paz city is a little lower, as it is situated in a valley but it's still lies at between 10,000 and 13,000 feet (3,000 to 4,000 metres). The air is pretty thin up here, and you need to take it easy for a few days until you acclimatise, otherwise you´ll suffer from what is known as sarojchi in these parts - altitude sickness

First shoot him, then idolise him. La Paz

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 The city itself is totally unlike anywhere I´ve been before, not even Quito in Ecuador, which is also high in the Andes. The main difference I think is that indigenous Bolivian Indians form a much higher proportion of the population here, and this makes a profound difference to the general feel and culture of the place. For example, just around the corner from here is the Witches Market, where they sell all sorts of weird and wonderful things - including dried toads and llama foetuses. I was tempted to buy a foetus as a souvenir, but I have to fly into the States in a few weeks and the good officers of the Department of Homeland Security aren`t exactly renowned for their sense of irony. Anyway, it would have made my suitcase smell.
It´s very cheap here too. My shoes got badly scuffed in the Chilean Lake district - sorted with a 9p shoe shine. Freshly squeezed fruit juice is just 12p on the street, a bread roll 0.5p, but it`s the little things that make all the difference. Because of the exotic electricity sockets both here and in Chile, I`ve been unable to charge my electric toothbrush until now - problem solved with an adapter that I bought off an Indian woman on the street for 30p. I got all my laundry done for less than £2. The list goes on........
For a couple of days now, I've been back on solids! That's a good thing, because Bolivian food is healthy, wholesome, and very very tasty

La Paz City

. The day before yesterday I ate my first ever llama steak - and very nice it was too. You don`t seem to need to eat very much here either, which I`m putting down to the altitude.
Surprisingly, La Paz is a much more touristy place than anywhere I`ve been to so far (or at least the area that I`m staying in is). This has its compensations, as I`ve been able to get a lot of things done that I just couldn`t manage previously, but also there are people here that actually speak the same language as me. Last night I had a meal with someone from England, and it was really nice just to be able to talk to someone with the same language and coming from the same culture as yourself.
Tomorrow I leave La Paz, and take my (very) shiny shoes on a bus up to Copacabana on the Peruvian border. I have booked into a hotel on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which looks lovely, so we`ll see what happens there.  
   
     

Hasta la próxima vez........

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Bolivia - United forever	Random La Paz graffiti	Typical La Paz vista	Hanging out
Llama foetuses (sorry)	Hotel Rosario, La Paz	View from my room	La Paz Bus
La Paz Cathedral	Parliamnent building	Er...that's too many pigeons mate!	Me!!
Dried toad anyone?	The Valley of the Moon	Cactus - Valley of the Moon	Rock Formations - Valley of the Moon

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