La Paz

So, I made it back to civilasation after seeing all those lakes, mountains and flamingos. It was a relief to be back among life and people, the beating heart of a city even though La Paz was a mass of orange brick and concrete cheap buildings and still at a very high altitude, it was more that a bit cold. As far as I'm concerned, it's impressive that a city even got built in a place like La Paz, if it was up to me I wold never have bothered.

The main highlight of La Paz for me was the witch market, llama foetuses being the main attraction. You could buy all manner of gringo get up too, jumpers, trousers, skirts, hats, gloves, the lot. I like the colourful knitwear. The other good thing was the warm duvets in the hostels, overshadowed somewhat by the awful showers - it's freezing outside, can we really risk showering in something guarded by a flimsy plastic curtain? NO. The extremely high probability of the water going cold just as you got all soapy was also not fun.

La Paz made me ill for no rhyme or reason, I can't work out what I ate. Unable to enjoy the nightlight that everyone else was raving about I spent most of the days trying to make myself better.

We went to watch a strange kind of Lucha Libre - Cholita wrestling. Local women in a wrestling ring, very odd costumes worn by the male fighters, horribly staged fight moves, the novelty wore off after a few minutes but it's worth seeing if you are ever in La Paz. You need to get yourself up to a place called El Alto, which overlooks the rest of the city and by consequence is higher up and even colder. Wear the gingo jumper you just bought at the witch market, you will need it!

Some random pictures: