La Paz

I arrived in La Paz with a slightly dodgy tummy, had one good day exploring and then needed the next few days to work on keeping my food in. Oh well, its the first time i´ve been sick during these travels so i cant really complain. And i´m fine now, back to sampling local market food!

La Paz is certainly a sight as you approach from the highway and look down on the city, snuggled in this huge valley. Its got a rather higledy pigledy older part, and further down the valley in the newer suburbs it sprouts highrise. I started by exploring its markets (they are huge and sprawl through streets) and main tourist precincts (main squares and shopping streets), but soon found most things shut for the peaceful demonstration that was happening. Yes, the people of La Paz don´t want the capital to move to sucre, and there was a huge march which shut down the city. And everyone marching from pan pipe playing school kids, to bolivian women dressed in their traditional skirt, shawl and hat.

I also managed to take a tour of Tiwanaku, Bolivias most well known ruins. These are in a valley about 2 hours away, and now consist of a few large pyramids, square enclosures and huge stella, some with some intricate carving. While the Tiwanaku human shaped stella and decorations where a welcome change from the pure stonework of the incas, the site needs some imagination to see what may have been there... lots of stones were taken for colonial buildings.

I also checked out some great museums (loved the weaving and masks), walked up to a lovely look out, sampled their saltenas (yum)... so La Paz wasn´t a complete wipeout!