La Paz

1st - 3rd June 2008

La Paz, is the highest capital city in the world, it’s airport is at a staggering 4,000m above sea level. The sight of the city, lying 500m below at the bottom of a steep canyon and ringed by snow peaked mountains, takes your breath away – literally! At this altitude, breathing can be a problem! The Spaniards chose this odd place for a city on 2oth October 1548 to avoid the chill winds of the plateau, and because they had found gold nearby.

After a boneshaking ride on the overnight bus from Uyuni, we arrived into La Paz at 7am on Sunday morning…. The journey, is worth mentioning for the unbelievable amount of rattling on the brand new bus! The windows shook because of the road surface, and when you thought that they wouldn’t be able to shake any more, they got louder and louder!

Anyway, 7am on a Sunday is not the best time to try and find somewhere to stay! We found a room at the Hostel Copacabana, near the Witches Market. It was cheap, warm and had the luxury of an en-suite!

There are some pictures of La Paz on Picasa, but the main reason we had come here was to use the city as the gateway to a number of other activities that we wanted to do. First on the list was Mountain Biking down the so called ‘Worlds Most Dangerous Road’, followed by a trip into the jungle.

More good food, including a trip to Wagamama (not the same as the UK chain, but still, very good Sushi!), rounded off our visit to La Paz and set us up for some serious mountain bike action.