Traffic chaos is the first impression of La Paz as you enter
the city from the altiplano & descend into the ‘bowl’ where the city sits
at a height of 3,650m making it the highest de-facto capital in the world (the
official capital of Bolivia being Sucre).
This City of around 2 million people (including El Alto) has
thousands of ‘collectivos’ (mini-van buses) that clog up every junction as they
shout out their destinations making any journey into town a challenge along
with the fact that every street is lined with market stalls & traders covering the pavement.
Our Hotel is near the Witches Market where Llama foetuses
and dried frogs for Aymara rituals are sold, as well as soapstone figurines and
aphrodisiac formulas, nothing we need!! but an interesting attraction.
Old Dodge & Chevy Buses in use throughout the City,
anyone know the vintage of these?
Dave & Roger outside the famous San Pedro prison, you
can organise an unofficial tour inside but we declined settling for a chat with an inmate
from the US who was on pre-release after 14 years.
If you want to know more about how this prison operates (it's unusual)
there is a book called Marching Powder by Rusty Young which is also soon to be released
as a film.
Who says that India is a nation of shopkeepers?
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