La Paz

After Copacabana I travelled down to La Paz. I stayed there for 4 or 5 days doing a bit of sightseeing and generally relaxing after my busy time in Peru.

La Paz has to be one of the most interesting locations for a capital city anywhere in the world. The centre of the city is built in a canyon below the 4000m Altiplano. The main square is at 3700m and the city is ringed by 6000m Andean peaks. All of which makes it the highest capital in the world.

The canyon slope leads to interesting buildings. The front of this cathedral is at street level but the rear is over 6m higher! Being so high up you have to be aware of altitude sickness (Soroche) as well. At 3800m you can only last a song or two on the dance floor before you have to sit down in a club!

One of the popular tourist spots is the Witch Doctor Market. Here you can pick up all your shamanistic needs. The things that caught my eye were the dried lama foetuses. These are supposed to be buried at the corner of your new house for luck. I didn't fancy my chances getting one through Irish customs for my parents new house!

In the suburbs of La Paz is Valle de la Luna, an area of unusual formations. It looks like rock, but up close you can see that it is packed earth eroded by the infrequent rain. Scattered around the place are occasional cactii like this one. And somewhere is the peyote cactus which has an hallucinogenic sap.

After my time in La Paz I went back to Peru. Along the way north I crossed the Straits of Tiquina on lake Titicaca. There is no bridge (or there wasn't in '99) so you cross on a boat, and so does your minibus. Its brought over on one of these barges.

From Bolivia I returned to Puno in Southern Peru and then I headed west. Down out of the Andes to Arequipa. But thats another story...