Getting Smashed in La Paz

When I last wrote we were about to get on a bus from Uyuni to La Paz. It was an 8 hour overnight bus ride and we were hoping to get some sleep. On first inspection, the seats seemed nice and roomy, so that it might be possible to sleep. We even got served a half decent meal.

Amy felt so comfortable, she took a sleeping tablet. This combined with the intense tiredness of the last few weeks made Amy somewhat delirious, actually it was like she was intensely drunk. As we started to leave she decided to go to the toilet (I do have permission to tell this story by the way). The bus began rocking and rolling and Amy’s first issue was staying on the toilet. The window was also open so she was also waving to people as they went by. Next issue arose as Amy tried to get re-dressed. She managed to get her undies on, started pulling up her thermals when a big bump bounced her against the door which she had forgotten to lock. She bounced out, basically into the astonished laps of a couple of guys in the backseat! Resurrecting her dignity she returned to us, raving slightly incoherently about the adventure that had been.

We expected at least Amy to be able to sleep after this, but then people started putting their seats back, causing everyone else to do the same and the space between the back of the chair and the next seat was not enough for a grown human leg, well at least a western grown human leg! Add to that the Bolivian roads. La Paz is the capital, Uyuni is the capital of a major province. The road linking them is constantly corrugated, to the point where your skin starts to itch like you have had a massage (not that it feels like a massage) and the bus has to be stopped every now and then to check for mechanical stability!

Anyway, we got to La Paz at about 5.30am and made it to our hostel. We were really lucky in that our room was ready so we went straight up and crashed out for all the morning. We emerged to eat some lunch, find an ATM, catch up on some email and have dinner, before crashing again.

Today we were up for a bit more action. After a slowish start we headed out to find a museum of gold antiquities. We headed up the hill. For those of you who don’t know anything about La Paz, it is built in an incredibly steep valley. The poorer you are, the higher you live (i.e. at the higher altitude) but everywhere you go, you go up and down stairs. It is really hard to describe just how vertical this city is, and being at 3,600m (given the steepness of the city I’m not sure where they take this measurement) it is hard work walking about.

We found the museum and there was a bit of confusion about how to get in, so first we went to a museum of musical instruments. It was actually really fascinating! It even had a mummy in it, and many instruments which fit the description “blow your own trumpet”!! We enjoyed it a lot, although the birds in their really cute little house in the courtyard (some kind of parrot) were a highlight.

From there we went though a couple of other random museums till we got to the metal museum which was great. The various crowns, pins, coins, earrings of the Inca and Tiwinaki (a tribe who were very predominant in this area prior to the Inca for hundreds of years) etc were fascinating and beautiful.

We headed to find some lunch and found a really cute place but it was only serving drinks so we each had a juice then headed to find some more food. We stopped on the way to find toilet paper and tissues and were headed to a bakery we had seen previously when I got hit by a truck.

At this point I should tell you a bit about Bolivian traffic. It runs to rules which are invisible to us, on roads with no line markings or few signs, however we have figured out when it is safe to cross roads. I was standing well inside the pavement when a truck mounted the pavement and I got hit in the back of the head with the side mirror. This spun me into the door handle which caught me square in the middle of the back before Anna pulled me out of the way before the sharp corner of the truck’s tray could get me. Amy reckons he took a good foot off the pavement so I was lucky not to get a foot run over.

I was initially a bit shaken but am fine. It is a mystery to all of us as to how he didn’t see us, as I am roughly twice the height of many people here. I kid you not, I keep walking past women who quite literally come up to my waist and most men don’t even make it to my shoulder.

Anyway, we found the bakery (see I really was fine, I was still focused on food) and got some lunch. We headed back to our hostel and could hear band music playing. We had been there a little while when I looked out the window and saw a procession going by a street up. We headed up to the fourth floor (you have no idea how exhausting it is sprinting two floors at altitude) but Anna and I decided we wanted a close up view, so we took off up the street. The procession was great, a brass band with heaps of groups of dancers. There were men in masks, ladies in full skirts, younger women in tiny outfits you would more expect to see in the Philippines. At each street the police cut off the traffic, it was all a bit chaotic but great. As far as we could work out it was a parade in support of the electrical workers union, but it is hard to figure it all out.

Amy had a bit of a nap in the afternoon, Anna and I have been planning our trip to Cuzco in a week or so, and have spent the afternoon in the bar which is very warm and comfortable (we haven’t been drinking all the time – really). Tomorrow we are off to the Amazon.