La Paz, Bolivia

An overnight train ride (where we were woken up at 6.30am by a Pan Pipes DVD on full blast) and a bus ride later and we (me and the nice polish couple, Peter and Asie) arrived in the brilliant city of La Paz. The capital city of the poorest country in South America is built in a valley and as you approach the city my breath was taken away and not just due to the altitude (3640m).

Despite being so amazed I was also fairly nervous as I had heard and read of some horror stories of people being robbed, mugged and drugged in this city and so over the three days I wa fairly on my guard. As it turned out, nothing bad happened to me apart from my loperamide wearing off and being out of breath as i walked up and down the cobbled streets.

Some highlighst of my 5 day stay in the city were...

The Witches Market
See here for more information, but walking round and seeing all the llama fetuses was fairly freaky and fascinating. Lots of old boys were sat around with queues of people waiting to have their fortune read. There were also some comedy potions and spells that people could buy and i nearly did buy a love potion (for a friend of course) but the stall owner laughed and told me i didbnt need i ("but it's for a friend!").

The Zebra Crossings
The city was what i expected all of South America to feel like. Chaotic and crazy. The drivers of La Paz didn;t let me down. They were nuts and all you could hear as you walked about were people hanging out of the millions of minivans trying to shout out destinations above the noise of car horns and police whistles. Anyway, on most major roads at most major crossings they employ people to dress up in Zebra Costumes to make sure that the traffic stops and people can cross. It's comedy to watch as they high five pedestrians and chase after and kick cars that don't stop...
some not very good pictures here

Ollivers Travels
Whil not gettig a good right up Lonley Planet i spent a bit of time here. I changed books (palmed off the unread ed mcbain novel kiss and my argentina lonely planet for some South American Fiction), watched some football and rugby, ate some good old fashioned english food (bangers and mash for tea and a full english breakfast a couple of days later) and generally kept any homesickness at bay for a while.

San Pedro Prison
A couple of years back I read a book called Marching Powder about the crazy experiences one brit has during his time inside the San Pedro Prison. Have a little read of the link so you get an idea of what its about....
So having read the book i was curious to see it. Once upon a time the lonely planet was recommending the tours that the aforementioned authour used to run, but even before i found out that they were no longer really possible (due to visitors being robbed and worse) i wasn't really keen to go in. However, we rocked up to have a look at the front gate and a guard passed us a note from the only non latino type - sebastian, a pale and beaten looking dutchman. We called the number on the slip and he told us he was inside for 10 years because they "wouldnt let him take 10kgs of cocaine back to holland". We didn't really chat for long, but he said he was in a bad way and needed some money. We didnt feel too comfortable giving him cash as we didn't want the heavily armed guards to mistake our (perhaps misplaced) sympathy as a transaction for the white powder rumoured to be produced inside. Instead we bought him 3 packs of his favourite smokes (derby reds) and Cassie (an english girl) got him a Toblerone! We handed them across and he looked grateful i think, but i can't really remmeber as it was so surreal looking through the gate at all the prisoners (moving out the way for some wives and children making their way out!) and knowing a bit about what goes on inside....

Death Road
You might have seen the e/mail or pictures about the most dangerous road in the world where trucks fall off as theres only room for one car. Well, it's just outside la paz and i mountain biked down the bugger. It was fairly scary not least because of the thick cloud at the top (4600m) and the wet (especially on the death road proper), but also all the stories you hear of mountain bikers dying. Most of those who have died it turns out have been israeli as many, so i'm told, go for the cheapest firms and ignore all advice so much so that many firms won't take them in groups. I know you shouldn;t laugh, but one corner was called ET corner because one japanese girl flew off over the edge with a 600m drop below and kept on cycling....
Anyway the whole 64km (only 4km uphill) was incredible. once we dropped beneath the clouds the views were some of the best i've sort of seen (i was reluctant to take my eyes off the road too much) and the adrenaline rush of speeding down some fairly dangerous cobbled roads was flippin ace. While two people had a minor crash, no one died and we all got to hang out in the pool at the bottom (1760m) in one peice.

Tiwinaku
Day trip to the oldest and arguably most important ruins of South American Pre Columbian culture was very very interesting and enjoyable. I'll let you read the blurb on the link to get an idea about it. The most intersting theory to come out of the day was that the japanese and chinese and egyptian and indian cultures all seemingly had some influnece and similarities with the Tiwanku lot and there have been some attempts to garner further proof that they could have sailed across the seas on reed boats (i forget the name so no link to the norweigan guy who led it)... instead you can get a link to this Devendra Banhart song which seems kinda apt...


Devendra / Chinese Children