The bus ride from Uyuni to la Paz was terrible. At onetime I could feel myself slipping of the cama seat. We were going down hill and at such speed it was pretty intense. All I could remember we’re the stories other travellers told me about the buses in Bolivia. I had to shut my eyes and say a little prayer.

Waking up to a cloudy morning, I get to the bus terminal and take a taxi to the bed and breakfast (The first one I stayed at).

When they say Bolivia is cheap, it is sooooooo cheap. Paying 5 bucks a night for an awesome room with amazing continental breakfast is amazing.

That morning my friend and I took a matatu like van (over packed and stuffy) to a local market. I think we were the only gringos there. You could get everything from baby clothes to food to broken car parts (THIS would have been handy if we were in Uruguay).  We walked around and ate some food ( which I shouldn’t have) and bought little bits and bobs. It was getting hot and there was no cover so we decided to back to get some lunch. Close by to the San Francisco church (The prettiest one iv seen so far) we grabbed lunch and walked to the witches market.

Witches market.

My theory on why it’s called the witches market is probably how the Bolivian ladies dress (do correct me if I’m wrong). They were old fashioned bowler hats plait their hair and tie it together. They have a top to go with an A-lined skirt that hardly matches and I think – they look like how witches would dress – I think. So the market, It has everything like a Masai market. Bags, jewellery, shoes, clothes everything. Haggling 5 bucks for a bag then walking off was my everyday job. I kind of feel bad because its cheap and you still want it cheaper and at the end you don’t buy it. (On reflection I felt like my mother, who can spend agesssss shopping without buying anything) hahaha. When you go to Bolivia it is a must to buy Alpaca jumpers. The trick is finding the real from the fake.

 

The City.

La Paz is cool. There isn’t much to do but it’s a nice city, different from the others i say. The food isn’t great (I had 2 stomach bugs and spent an entire night throwing up). It’s hilly and you can feel its height and the air thinning. Climbing a couple stairs or the hills is hard work. Not to mention that the weather changes so frequently, that the attire you originally intended to wear is not sufficient. The area I was staying at was quite touristic and from the local point I could only see people who were old or children. It was strange how no one my age was around. One day we spent the day walking walking walking until we got to the other side of La Paz where everyone was!!!! It was the university area and the shops looked fancier. Food got better La Paz was getting more interesting.  Hungry for Ice cream, we tried one that tasted like meat with onions and tomatoes. That went straight to the bin.

Another cool thing about this city is that each street is dedicated to something. One street full of Ice cream, one full of electronics one full of just batteries and so on. So it was easy to get around and find what you are looking for.

We decided that we wanted to eat some good food and something cool, we heard that you could have the highest fondue in the world. We got there and it was a Swiss guy who owned the place, made his own cheese and ahhhh it was brilliant. I hadn’t had fondue before so it was really cool and tasty. That evening I felt like I had seen enough of La Paz for me to be satisfied and I wanted to move on.

I heard that you could take a bus from la Paz to Copacabana and stop over to see lake Titicaca and over to pouno to get to cusco. This is exciting. I am excited for Peru and iv been anticipating this for ages,

Perrrrrruuuuuu here I commeeeeeeeee.