Back in the Metropolis

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La Paz is an absolutely insane city. It is th highest capital city in the world, which is enough to leave you literally breathless, and it is a bizarre mix of the old and the new, indigenous Aymara and Quechua culture, witches markets, churches, gringo bars and the most hideously dangerous roads.

There are no little red and green men to tell you when to walk. There are no pedestrian crossings. The cars drive straight through red lights. and the Chinese buses pull over to pick up more passengers every two metres, totally blocking your view of oncoming traffic from all directions. Fred and I were both responsible for hauling each other out of the path of oncoming vehicles on several occasions. The only time I have been genuinely SCARED on this trip was crossing the roads of La Paz.

The first thing I noticed, after several days of clean, fresh, invigorating air up at Lake Titicaca, was the pollution. The concept of carbon footprints and unleaded petrol just don´t exist here. In Chile, many vehicles are recycled from Germany, hence your micro having “Hamburg” written on the front, and the fire trucks having whatever “Fire Truck” is on the side in German. When buses get too rickety to be used in Asia, they get sent to Bolivia. Therefore all the vehicles are covered in Korean or Chinese or whatever it may be, they belch out fumes all the way down the street, and the doors are often on the wrong side, making catching a bus a terrifying experience as you jump on or off while it´s still moving, in the middle of the road. And don´t go thinking there are bus stops or even routes, there is normally just the driver´s young son yelling a stream of unintelligble street names out of the window. I, being slightly masochistic, prefered this method of transport to the usual gringo taxis, as if you manage to find the right bus, get on without being run over, get off without falling out AND find the right amount of Bolivianos to pay your fare, you actually feel invincible. It´s great.

Aside from its shocking buses, La Paz is known for its street markets. You don´t ever need to go into a shop to buy ANYTHING. You can eat, drink, buy clothes, coca leaves, pens, books, potions and jewellery on the street. I took a stroll over to the witches market in the hope of finding some concoction to protect me while crossing La Paz´s roads.  Unfortunately, the traditional symbol of protection here comes in the form of a dried llama foetus. Which were sold abundantly throughout the market, all shrivelled and leathery. So I decided to take my chances with the trucks…

La Paz would just be another big, dirty, smelly city were it not for its stunning location. As the bus pulled into the city, after 16 hours, everyone went “wowwwww!” and got up and started taking photos. There is a huge snow-capped mountain which overlooks the city, and the houses go all the way up the rockiest, steepest slopes, leaving you wondering how on EARTH people get up there. They really are vertical.