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We rode in to La Paz from Puno, Peru alongside Lake Titicaca for most of the way. We ferried across at the thinnest point. Our bus went on a couple planks of wood the called a boat. All along the way we saw many little farming towns without any signs of the modern world except for huge Coke signs on every other public building. They were shameless about plastering up gigantic ads and have continued to be through every town we've seen in South America. They are inescapable. It started to seem like we were getting near a big city but there was nothing in sight. After rounding a corner, we saw a huge city in a big mountainous cove. It looked incredible surrounded by huge mountains on all sides with houses covering the slopes until they were too steep to hold them. We wandered around for while trying to find a good hostal, huffing and puffing in the thin air. La Paz is one of the highest cities in the world at 11000 feet above sea level. We were told by many other travelers to drink the Mate de Coca for the altitude. It was just tea made from the leaves of the Coca plant, but the locals said it makes you able to work longer and harder without food or water in addition to helping with the altitude sickness. Earlier in Puno, we had to stay in one night and relax because we were both sick with pounding headaches from the lack of oxygen. We found a good hostal and met a guy from England and spent a few days hanging out in La Paz with him. We took one day to ride to the rich suburbs and hike around on the Valle De La Luna. It was like the Badlands in South Dakota except they were bigger and you could climb around on them. We met a guy from Australia that told us about a mountain biking tour that was downhill the whole way. We thought that sounded fun, so we did one, too. The agency talked us into taking a bus ride further down into the jungle to the Amazon Basin and taking a Jungle Pampas tour for 3 days so we left La Paz towards Rurrenabaque.
On the bus ride from Puno to La Paz
Hanging out around the hostel
The Valle De La Luna
La Paz
Return to South America 2000 home
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