We stayed in a really nice hostel, Solario, which was right next to San Fransisco and really cheap and full of french people. I think a month could easily have gone by and we wouldn't have noticed, La Paz is such an easy place!
There are a lot of normal markets, and right next to our hostel there was the Lanza market, a big old concrete maze with strips of stalls going diagonally up, down, left, right; I got lost in there so many times! The stalls are never all open at the same time which makes it even more confusing as the rows look different every time!! Best egg sandwiches and choripan from the upstairs bit (Doña Elviria) which is what we lived on, also tried some delicious cuban food in a restaurant with live music and writing all over the wall..
We went on a walking tour from the San Pedro square and learnt lots of interesting things about La Paz from this guy who learnt all of his english from Downton Abbey and who overdid being a funny tour guide. San Pedro prison is sponsored by Coca-Cola. And Coca-Cola are the only US company who are allowed to import coca leaves. I have been learnin a lot.
My friend Sarah ran down the side of a building...
The protests from last week about the pension laws continued onto this week. In La Paz they are really good at blockades. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and almost Friday they marched down the whole of the prado, the main street which divides the hispanic and native halves of the city and stops you going anywhere. On Wednesday was the worst, I didn't go and see but from 3 blocks away you could see a sea of miners marching down, shouting, chanting, firecracking...
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| The teachers' strike wasa lot nicer, they looked like they were just having a pleasant stroll down the road |
The collectivo (minibus) on the way there went up into the snowy mountains I had spent the last few days gawping up at. It's crazy how variable the climate is!
The road to Coroico (they built a new one which wasn't as dangerous as the death road) was having work done on it so we waited for an hour by the side of the road...
And because of that for the last hour of the journey the driver raced us there through complete clouds on the roads then on the dirt track right next to a lot of metres drop. Waaahhh!!
Coroico is really small and twee and hilly with cobbled streets. We found el Hostal Familiar with the most beautiful view over the mountains and the jungle and the clouds...
We were the only people staying there and the owner Cesar was extremely friendly and helpful. He drew us a map with squiggly lines for a walk the next day and assured us that we would never get lost in the jungle with his map.
On the bus there we had met Marianela from Argentina and Ana from Rio, we went out for pasta and beers and cards in this garden pub. My spanish was broadened by those two; Argentinian jsh instead of y so 'jsho me jshamo Marianela' and Ana has a really strong Brasilian accent and says loads of words in portuguese instead of spanish.
In the morning we set off on the road down into the jungle on the side of the mountains with their tops disappearing in the clouds. Past coca plantations and little villages where all of the houses had huge sheets with coca drying in their yards, huge birds...
And this guy on a motorbike drove past really fast, had obviously just crashed because he had a huge wound on the side of his face with blood pouring out, but kept on going.
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| Lots of photos taken |
We got to the cascades a bit of a way off the path, there was a little pool and we went swimming, it was so nice after being in the hot humid sun. And ate half a kilo of that delicious Bolivian cheese for lunch.
Then waited on the side of the road for the next collectivo...
Entonces back to Coroico, back to La Paz for one last night
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