Choose another map, showing:

• Amazon
• South America (central)
• South America
• The World

Other entries in La Paz

Not your average capital city..

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, at an altitude of approx. 3600m. Look down a bustling coblestone street and you can see snowcapped mountains in the near backdrop. Browse the noisy, streetside markets and you can find all sorts of wierd and wonderful stuff like dried Llama foeteses.

The city itself is very hilly which means even a walk to the local breakfast cafe is usually an uphill slog which leaves you well out of breath and gasping for oxygen. We've been here more than a week now so you'd think we'd be acclimatized by now!

We've been hanging out with a really good bunch of people in La Paz (mostly crew we've met en route) so have spent a lot of time eating, drinking and just hanging out at the huge selection of wicked cafes, bars and restaurants.

We watched the big Liverpool vs AC Milan football game at a local gringo pub. The game started around 2pm and virtually the entire gringo population must have been squashed into the tiny pub. When Liverpool came back from 3-0 down to win the game in a penalty shoot-out the pub erupted. Seems there are more than a few english backpackers in Bolivia. From there, a big group of us kicked on to the local bowling alley with a bunch of beers and a bottle of cheap nasty vodka. There are only two lanes at the alley so we ruled them both for about 2 hours while a crowd of Bolivians cheered on in amusement. No electronic pin set-ups here. Just a man who sits on a ledge at the end of the lane and drops down to roll the ball back and set up the pins after each bowl. After a well-executed strike our Scottish friend Cheryl took the limelight with high-fives right down the lane from a cheering crowd of 30-odd Bolivians. Was one of the funniest nights we've had in South America.

In between eats and drinks we've done our fair share of bargain-hunting. The shopping in La Paz is incredible. So many bargains. Lots of Alpaca clothes, scarves, hats and lots of cool wooden handicrafts, paintings etc.

The highlight of La Paz though has to be the mountain bike ride down the road with the unenviable title, 'the Most Dangerous Road in the World' or otherwise known as 'The Death Road'. Devon wasn't too keen for this one so I tagged along with our friends Joe&Cheryl and Dan&Kim. It was just the 5 of us plus our guide and a driver who followed. At a chilly and oxygen-thin 4800m, we got out of the van and donned our provided blue tracksuits, saddled up and setoff down the dramatic cliff-hugging road that supposedly claims more lives than any other in the world. The scenery was spectacular as we descended 3,500m in altitude from the snow-capped Cordillera Real mountain range into the lush green valley of the Yungas. The only person who had an accident was our guide who, 20 minutes into the descent decided to pull over to a dirt side-path to wait for us, and must have hit his front brakes too hard or something as he came off over the handle bars. He was more embarrassed than physically hurt!

We've also done our fair share of protest-dodging in La Paz. Will save detailed stories for when we are out of Bolivia, lest i say the Bolivian people are pretty pissed off with their government and have been getting a little rowdy in the streets. Calls have been made for a new president but that is nothing new to Bolivia as I dont think a single Bolivian president has served out a full term in office.

Actually we probably would have left yesterday with a big group of our friends, except for a hassle we struck at the Bolivian Immigration office. As our visas were about to expire we decided to save ourselves any potential hassles at the border and have them extended (a process which the lonely planet describes as 'little ado'). Devon got hers back free of charge on the same day but apparently Aussies dont have it so easy. After id paid $20 and they'd stamped my extention they told me i had to come back on Monday to collect my passport. This was on Friday and we were planning to leave with our friends for Lake Titicaca on Saturday so I asked them to cancel my extention and give me my passport back. Apparently that was not such an easy thing for them to do (is anything ever easy when dealing with an embassy?) so I had to wait for an hour to speak with the director and then he told me if i wanted them to cancel the stamp i had to get a solicitor to write me a Stat Dec. and that i would not get my application money back and would also risk an overstay fine at the border. So we deliberated over a coffee and decided a couple of extra days in La Paz wouldnt hurt.

There have been on and off road blockades on the streets out of La Paz but we think our friends made it through to Puno in a minibus via an alternative route yesterday. If we can't take a bus by mid-next week we'll probably fly straight to Cusco, Peru.

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Not your average capital city..":