La Paz

La Paz was a different experience as for the first time we had a local guide, Alonso, an old school friend and genuine half Bolivian. We spent 3 days with him and his dad at their place with home made breakfast and dinner every day, a nice change from rice and beans. On the first day we headed to the zoo (saw some condors, big cats, snakes, turtles and monkeys) and the Valle de Luna, which is a weird place with strange formations in the rocks. We were also joined by Alonso's neighbour for an evening in Dubliner's pub, not very Bolivian but good fun.
A little hungover the next day we did some souvenir shopping in a market street (avoiding the llama foetuses sold to be used as sacrifices!) and met up with another lady friend of Alonso's to go to a lookout point for the nearby Illimani volcano. Along the way she told us more about the traditional sacrifices which are still going on today, particularly among the builders, who are mostly indigenous, when starting a new building. It turns out the llama babies are only for small houses, a real human sacrifice is often required for big projects. This is a strange place.
On our last day we had time for a bit more market exploring, the old colonial buildings in the centre, and a spectacular but terrifying ride on the city's new cable car.Read more