Wednesday 31 January
What better way to start a day in La Paz than riding the cable car public transport. Literally, an amazing overview of the city.
La Paz is a cramped, congested, haphazard and very steep city. Despite the Andes mountains all around, it's not attractive at ground level.
Up at KilliKilli viewpoint we watched a music group making a video.
Le Paz is the government and military capital of Bolivia. Protests, demonstrations and roadblocks are almost daily occurrences here. Hence, the security presence around Plaza Murillo.
The Witches Market has shops selling everything you need to make a "table offering" to Mother Earth.
These days there are more shops selling souvenirs for tourists though.
Much more authentic was our trip to the Alasita Market. At Carnival time people buy minitures of anything they want or need - from cars and houses to groceries or money or building materials. They use these to make offerings and ask to be blessed in the coming year.
Clusters of stalls, all selling the same things form markets dotted all over the city. I took pictures at the gardening market. While this is not as efficient as a big garden centre might be, it does create lots of jobs for independent traders.
Street stalls and corner shops are far more common than supermarkets or malls.
We tried a local speciality for lunch - Charquekan - shredded dried meat over corn with potato,egg and cheese.
We took a look at the Valley of the Moon; natural sandstone formations. Only a small, protected piece of this valley remains - the rest having been destroyed and built over.
There is a petrol shortage in Bolivia so most city garages have run out of fuel. Queues of cars, sometimes up to a kilometre long wait for hours to fill up, causing traffic jams.
Our hotel, The Met is in an upmarket area called San Miguel. It's safe to walk around here at night with lots of bars, restaurants and shops.
For drinks and an early supper, of all the choices we had, we went to Moe's - A Simpson's themed bar and burger joint filled with young people.
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