La Paz - 2nd February

Hello,

At the start of February we arrived in La Paz. The largest city in Bolivia, although it is not the capital. It took a few days to adjust to the altitude as it is a dizzying 3660m above sea level. The city, although over crowded and dusty, is set to a beautiful backdrop. The city clings to the sides of a cast canyon and in the background is the snowy Mount Illimani which is a whopping 6402m. It took a while to adjust, not only to the altitude, but to the vastness of the city. It is huge and full of bustling people. The there are many busy markets and crowded alleys with trendy cafes. The weather was a harsh mix of pouring rain and clouds, and overbearing heat. The altitude made it an effort to walk through the hilly streets - the only close supermarket seemed to be halfway up the canyon side, however, in reality without the altitude the walk would have been a breeze. The most stressful part of our week stay in La Paz was the trip to the post office to send home some our goodies that we had collected along the way. Having been travelling for only ten days or so my package was an easy over the counter job. The same could not be said for Gee who seemed to be sending home half her backpack which had been overflowing with alpaca blankets and place mats that she has collected in Cusco. The package was too big for a box over the counter and therefore we had to trek down to the basement of the office and have it hand sewn into a laundry style bag and send it special class - at this moment in time it still hasn't arrived! While we stayed in La Paz at the Wild Rover hostel we also took day trips to the Salt Flats in Uyuni and to the Death Road - look it up on Top Gear. These will feature soon!

Lots of Love,

Clementine x