La Paz, Day 4

Well I`ve pretty much recovered from the cold, I`ve made a few friends from the hostel I`m at, and I`ve been so busy having a good time that again, I haven`t had much time to get on the net.

La Paz has grown on me quickly. I could spend a week or two here and still not explore everything I`d like to see and experience. I`m actually glad I`ll be passing through again when I head back to Perú. It`s such a fascinating city. It sits in a basin surrounded by mountains, is the highest capital city in the world, changes from the extremely poor outer areas (up the side of the mountain) to the rich inner city, the simplest homes juxtaposed with the most modern skyscrapers... It`s brilliant and people here are wonderful. Even as the biggest city in Bolivia it`s more laid back than most places I`ve seen in Perú; it`s very congested but people aren`t as pushy, you can take your time getting from place to place.

I`ve done a lot today that I don`t have time to write about at the moment (I`ll try later tongiht), but for now I`ll copy what I wrote about the last couple days:

"6.09pm - Sat. 14 Oct. 2006

"...The bus ride to La Paz was interesting. We had to cross a river at one point, but to do so we all had to pile out of the bus with our passports and 1.50 bs - turns out the river is a chekpoint for immigration and another way of taxing the tourists. We had to cross on a small passenger boat as out bus drove onto this kind of flatbed ferry (rather precariously, I might add, with our luggage still on the bottom), and was motored over to the other side where we piled back on. It was quite amusing.

"I arrived in La Paz yesterday evening and took a taxi to a hostel I chose fairly randomly from the Lonely Planet pages, based on it`s location near the Witches Market. I didn`t realize tha traffic would be so bad! But I`ve learned my lesson: it`s much faster to walk anywhere.

"The place is called Alojamiento El Solario...There are tons of travellers and it`s pretty social and upbeat. I actually ran into Michi (the Swiss guy I met in Lima) and we went for dinner. It was nice to have a familiar face right from the start. He leaves tomorrow, but there`s an English girl, Naomi, in my dorm and I think we´ll get along well. She`s been travelling for months and has nearly run out of money, so is applying for jobs in the area.

"...The Mercado Negro (Black Market - though most things are over the table) is huge and crowded so with my cold the the light-noise-smell-sensitivity that comes with it I couldn`t take it for long.

"The Witches Market is so interesting as well. It`s full of vendors selling herbs, potions, lotions, pills, all to heal or cast spells. I found it a bit tourist-unfriendly however; I was about to walk into one store to buy candles for the animal refuge and the woman on the step basically told me to move on. When she found out I wasn`t just browsing she let me buy the candles though. It`s a unique little area and I`d like to explore it more...

"11.36pm - Sun. 15 Oct. 2006

"I have had such a wonderful day today. I made some new friends form the hostel and have, from 1pm until now, been hanging out with them, learning and sharing so many things, and having a fabulous time. I haven`t had so much fun in a while.

"This morning before meeting up with Naomi (the English girl) and Olivier (a French speaking Belgian guy also in my dorm), I went to the bus station and got a ticket for Santa Cruz. After today though I`ve decided to change it from Monday night to Tuesday..."

.......I have to meet up with people soon so I have to finish this later.......... look for the continuation in `La Paz, Day 4, Part 2`......