La Paz

La Paz is a city like no other. It is situated in a valley that sits 3,600m above sea level and houses cling to the sides of the hills and continue to clutter the valley right down into the middle where the central city is located. We were booked into Adventure Brew B&B which is located a convenient 3 min walk downhill from the bus station. After checking in and enjoying their all you can eat pancake breakfast, Jimmy, Dmitry and I set off to explore what the city had to offer.

We had a look around Museo San Francisco which is a beautifully restored 460 year old cathedral. The bell tower offered us a great view of the city so was well worth the visit. I had to show serious restraint to not ring the bells though as the ropes were calling me as we wandered around up there! I didn't really feel like ending up in La Paz's famous prison though.

That afternoon we wandered through the markets hoping to be enticed into making  a purchase. Sadly every shop has the same stuff wherever you go so we found it hard to buy anything, knowing it was probably just made in bulk in China. So instead we are going to hold out until we know that it's handmade stuff.

The following day saw us doing some more exploring as we wanted to acclimatize before doing the death road cycling that La Paz is famous for. 

While exploring Jaen Rd, upon a recommendation from a Chilean couple we met in San Pedro, we stumbled upon the Museo of musical instruments. The Museo had an incredible collection of traditional Bolivian instruments as well as others from around the world. The most impressive were guitars made from armadillo bodies.

Plaza Murillo was a sight to behold. Its surrounding buildings were nothing short of beautiful but the real sight was the fact that the whole plaza was completely awash with pigeons who are fed by tourists that buy bird seed from Bolvian vendors.

It was actually quite frightening (Kate, I thought of you) and so we didn't stick around for very long! Sky rats are definitely not high on my list of favourite animals.

Unfortunately Jimmy's cold was starting to get the better of him and by the next morning the cold plus altitude sickness had hit him him hard so the Death Road was off the cards, instead a day in bed was in order. He was seriously uncomfortable the whole day and I was starting to really worry he had severe altitude sickness that required a doctor but thankfully by the next morning he was feeling semi human again.

We made the decision that we would spend one more day in La Paz, then catch the morning bus to Copacabana in order to get some relaxing time in and let Jimmy recover somewhere nice. This meant we would have to return to La Paz if we want to do the Death Road still but as it's only a 4 hour bus ride we decided it was better than sticking around a stinky city, stuck in a stinky hostel.

All Jim could manage on our last day was a bit more wandering. We walked down to the "park" area which was more a network of concrete paths with grass between them. We did however find a walkway which took us above all the paths and then we caught a furnicular up to a view point where you could see the snow capped Mt Illamani in the distance.

Since Jim finally had his appetite back we thought we would go somewhere a bit nicer for dinner so went to the restaurant within Hotel Rosario which was recommended by Trip Advisor. It lived up to its reviews - especially the incredible chocolate mousse!