AT LARGE IN LA PAZ

So, it was a bad bus ride into La Paz, especially for Ben, who had to get the driver to stop the bus so that he could throw up on the side of the road.....this marked the start of a fairly miserable few days in the city, as we were both pretty sick. A combination of stomach bugs and altitude sickness. But we managed to wander around the city a little and Emily even managed to recover enough strength to attend the weekly show of midget wrestling with John, whilst Ben rested in bed within sprinting distance of the toilet!

La Paz is 3660m above sea level, the highest capital city in the world. To see it from the top of the valley is an unforgettable sight - the many buildings literally clinging to the steep sides, overlooked by snow-capped mountains and lunar rock formations. The city itself is also one of the most polluted in the world, which was more apparent to us as we were already feeling unwell. We checked into the third of the 3 Loki hostels, but checked out a couple of days later beacause it was just too dirty and smelly and there seemed to be too many ill people staying there... we needed to get better, so we moved to the great Adventure Brew hostel - a newer, cleaner place with its own micro-brewery which supplied one free beer a day (and after a few days we were well enough to make the most of this!). 

Once we were feeling better, we were also able to start enjoying La Paz - it is a huge sprawling mass of dilapidated buildings, rambling markets and stalls on every street where you can buy anything you could possibly want - from fruit juices and empanadas to video cameras and watches to vintage coke bottles and pan pipes to llama foetuses at the Witches' Market. It's a fantastic, noisy, exciting and colourful city - if only we'd had more time to spend there.

After starting 2 courses of antibiotics (thanks for the help Brian!) we were ready to head off on another mini-adventure to the jungle...