La Paz 2.0

I stayed another 3 nights in La Paz after the jungle as I actually really liked it here. I don't really know why but it's the busy vibe on the one hand and the chilled atmosphere on the other. If you walk around the main squares and streets there are always lots of people walking, shouting, trying to sell something. But there are also lots of people just sitting around watching. That's what I did on my first day back. I just sat on the Plaza Murillo with an ice cream and watched people. I also really enjoyed the good food you can get here. It's in places that are made for gringos but it's still quite cheap. And after 8 month I was happy for a change from the local food.
Another reason I came back to La Paz was that I wanted to get a tattoo. Just a tiny memory of my trip. When I was here last week I found this nice place while I was walking around with Pepijn. We walked in and had a chat with the guys and it just had a nice vibe. But I didn't want to go to the jungle with a fresh tattoo. So I came back now and got my tiny tattoo within 10 minutes (after I waited for the guy for almost an hour - still loving Latin America).
As I didn't want to walk to much with the fresh tattoo I decided to do another tour on the Teleferico. The cable cars are somehow a weird modern ufo that has landed in this city. The design of the stations and the cars but also all the advertisements and signage is really modern and could be found anywhere in europe.
There were 2 more lines I hadn't been on yet. The first one went from close to my hostel up to El Alto again but in another area. On the way up we went over this massive graveyard with lots of buildings with uncountable graves cut into them like shelves.
The last bit went over some really steep rocks and I suddenly saw a car stuck in a gap in the rocks. It must have fallen down there at some point. No idea if the people made it out there.
Once up in El Alto I changed to the second cable car which was a little different than the others. As the city was almost flat up here it just hovered over a busy street. It was nice watching the people and the houses right below. Some houses had facades that reminded me on art deco like in Miami.
I was still really excited about the cable cars trying to see everything that was there to see. But this time I wasn't the only one. I shared a car with a little boy and his grandfather. He was really excited as well and so cute. This situation made me think of the way they handle kids here. It feels they don't make a big fuss about them. The ladys often carry them in their big scarfs on the back and just take them wherever they go. You see really little kids lying next to their stands in the markets or bigger ones running around in between them. And everybody watches out for them a little so no one gets lost. Kids also often come to you curiously because you look different and they don't hide it. Sometimes I'm afraid for the little ones when the mums just lay them down on the floor in the bus without anything like a seat. But on the other hand the kids are really peaceful and barely cry even on the long busrides without any toys or mums fussing over them. I think they learn early to except their situation and just be by themselves. I don't want to say it should be more like this in our world. It was just an observation that came to me over the time I've been traveling here.
My last day in La Paz I went to the Valle de la luna. An area with weird rock formations like on the moon. It's fascinating to see something like this still being in the city. It's a bit to the outskirts but there are still residential areas around. To get there I took a local bus. It's a crazy system with tons of minibuses in La Paz just driving around everywhere and stopping wherever people wanna get on or off. I was fascinated that I found my bus and made it there and back without any confusion. I had read "look out for a minibus with a yellow sign with black letters that has a sign in the window saying 'Mallasa' around the area of Plaza San Francisco" and that was all the description I needed to find my bus within minutes.
On the way back I saw something funny. Some guys pushing a car that had broken down up a road. All the while a girl sitting in the front seat filming the whole thing with her selfie stick posing into the camera. People here love taking selfies even in situations like this.
The next morning I took "Me Teleferico" one last time to get to the bus station for busses to Copacabana.Read more