La Paz

Well, quite frankly, we had no idea what to expect: maybe another gray, dodgy, overcrowded Latin american metropolis. A little gray indeed, but different than expected: A peculiar city, drenched into a narrow desert valley with up to 500 meter high walls on both sides, so narrow in some places, that only one street and the river fit in, overlooked by snow covered 6000 meter high mountains. Luckily we got the chance to use the brand-new 'Teleferico' (cable car) definitely the easiest way to get around above a unique mix of colonial buildings, modern skyscrapers, featuring all kind of markets, including the witch market where one can even buy dried baby lamas and everything else for pre-christian rituals.
we walked around but after decided to organized a city tour for the next day, really interested to get to know the secrets and the history of this weird city; we learned that the Bolivians had kicked out their former president with a serious of strikes and violent confrontations, and that after Evo Morales emerged ten years ago as the new leader taking Bolivia and its people into a new era of fairness and equality in a country where 60% of its population is native.
after all this history we decided to go wild last day in La Paz we rented mountain bikes and went to the famous "Death road" (sorry parents for not telling you in advance, probably better this way ;-) this gave us a chance to drive down from 4600 to 1000 meters in deadly speed, getting to know also the tropical side of Bolivia.Read more