The overnight bus was comfortable enough and
we actually got quite a bit of sleep despite it getting rather chilly at one
point through the night. Beginning your
first experience of a capital city after getting off a night bus is never the
best introduction. Compounded with the
fact that we got a numpty of a taxi driver who clearly didn’t know where we
wanted to go despite giving him the name and address of our hostel. Steve got out the map and we eventually got
him to drop us near where we needed to be and soon tracked down Residential
Latino. Once inside the space cadet
behind reception took ages checking our reservation but we eventually got the key
to a room we’d booked months ago. Once
again it proved to be a good deal and we feel it’s in a good area of town –
near the main square but away from all the traveller and backpacker places.
http://www.residenciallatino.com/en_inicio.php
By the time we were ready to re-emerge from
the hotel the thick cloud that had been hanging in the valley had been burnt
off by the morning sun. We spent a few
hours wandering around town but it didn’t really grab our attention. The locals market was okay but predominantly
shut with it being a Sunday, the tourist markets were all open but we weren’t
interested in buying anything. The main
square was as nice as any we’ve seen in Bolivia with this one dominated by the
cathedral and the president’s gaff where they were preparing for the following
day’s independence celebrations.
La Paz has to be one of the oddest capital
cities in the world. Now we all know it
sits at high altitude and that in itself makes in unusual but it sprawls up the
steep sided slopes of what would have once been a lovely valley. In theory a river runs right through the
middle but it is so full of pollution, effluence and rubbish that the
authorities have thankfully paved over most of it. It’s lovely seeing the Cordillera Real Mountains
looming on the edge of the city but the whole place has the feel of an enormous
shanty town. Sorry La Paz but you were
one town too many as we’re now itching to get into those mountains. So instead of spending 3 full days aimlessly
wandering the streets we booked ourselves onto a day trip out to some ruins.
Day
2 – trip to Tiwanaku
Today is Bolivian Independence Day so a few
roads are closed off but all of them are very quiet so we quickly picked up all
our fellow day-trippers and left the city behind. Obviously to get out of the city you have to
climb up which we duly did and soon reached a vast flat plain. We drove through this area for a while before
climbing up to Mirador Lloco Lloco at 4028m with great views of the Cordillera
in front of us and Lake Titicaca behind us in the distance. There are 6 peaks in the range that top 6000m
with Mount Potosi being the most popular one to summit and Mount Illimani the
highest.
It soon became apparent that we’d signed up
for a shuffle around and be herded like sheep tour – oh goody our favourite
kind! We weren’t even allowed to buy our
own entrance ticket which at Bob 80 a head seemed pretty steep. The ticket did include Museo Litico, Museo
Ceramic, Sitio Arqueologico de Kalasasaya and Sitio Arqueologico de Pumapunka
but since the first museum only had one exhibit we didn’t hold out much hope
for the rest. To be fair the guide was
very informative and his English was excellent but it was oh so embarrassing
sticking in such a large group. They’re
doing a good job of restoring the site but there is very little of the original
material in evidence and they don’t really seem to know much about the history
of the area.
It was interesting to learn how long the
Tiwanaku people had lived in the area and then how quickly the Inca took
over. However, the Inca people’s power
and domination lasted for a relatively short period of time compared to the
older indigenous groups. The ancient site is at 3820m but was once on the
shores of a previously much larger Lake Titicaca. No one really knows why the Tiwanaku
abandoned the area but the most commonly held belief is that the lake shrank
and the people moved on. Another theory
is that the Incas booted them out but this story is losing credibility. Much more is known about the Incas with their
own records being much more detailed and decipherable. Historians and their ilk are more inclined to
believe that the site was already abandoned before the Inca arrived.
We refused to get herded into an expensive
restaurant so split from the group at lunchtime. We were told to meet back up in an hour so
that gave us time to wander into the village and see if we could locate the
source of the celebrations we could hear.
The village square was in full swing celebrating Independence Day and
they all seemed to be tucking into beer and stronger liquids. Unfortunately we had to leave before we’d had
our fill (of the atmosphere not booze!) and we’re dismayed at having to wait
over half an hour for the bus to reappear.
We were then ferried a mere 200m to the final
site but by this point we’d seriously lost patience with being told what to
do. We’d already ostracised ourselves so
wandered around under our own steam and got back to the bus first. At the end of the day they don’t really know
what they’re excavating and it all seems to be getting done in a very ad hoc
manner. We’re glad we went to see
something from an indigenous group even older than the Inca but the trip really
should have only been a morning’s distraction as opposed to almost a full day. The moral of the story? Thoroughly check trip details before signing
up and, even better, do it independently whenever possible.
Day 3
To be honest we just want to start trekking
but with another day to fill in the city Steve plotted a route that would keep
us occupied for at least the morning.
The idea was to take in a couple of miradors to try to get a better
picture of this odd yet increasingly likable city. The first one either doesn’t exist any more
or the steps to reach in have since crumbled away. We tried to find the textiles museum since
we’d missed the opening times of the one in Sucre but couldn’t find it. So we wandered off to find the second mirador
and the walk took us past the football stadium with a mini replica of Tiwanaku
outside it. If we’d known that we could
have saved a fortune yesterday!
Unfortunately there aren’t any games at the moment; it would have been
fun watching the opposition huffing and puffing in the high altitude – around
3600m by-the-way. Although which part of
the city they use for that measurement we don’t know and it must spread up and
down the valley sides to the tune of 500m.
Anyway we carried on walking down towards the
second mirador only to find it was shut for landscaping. To be honest it looks like they’re trying to
beautify this area of the city; well, we were approaching the rich resident’s
enclave. In contrast to the vast
majority of cities in the world; the lower you live the richer you are as you
reap the benefits of slightly more oxygen in your air. To be honest walking up and down the steep
streets does take your breath away. We
were failing miserably at finding a good lookout point but at the second place
there was an information booth so we were finally able to pick up a city map. This had yet another mirador marked on so off
we set once again. Third time lucky –
not only did we find it but it was open and we could see the shanties sprawling
up the valley sides and snow-capped peaks in the distance.
All of that hadn’t filled in anywhere near as
much time as we hoped so we ended up having our picnic in the hotel’s
courtyard. The sun was shining bright
and warm through the roof so we spent the afternoon catching up with journals,
reading and generally keeping away from the crowds and vehicle fumes
outside. We’d hit lucky that we’d arrived
in La Paz on a Sunday and Independence Day as the city had been quiet. If we’d had to endure 3 days like today I
think we’d have gone mad – mountain trekking please! In fact we had to go and meet the people we’d
booked our Cordillera trek and Mount Sajama hike with. We came out of the office feeling incredibly
pleased we’d chosen to use them and full of confidence that they would provide
the equipment, information and guiding we would require. Finally we’re going to get out into the
middle of nowhere again but this time we’ll traverse it using shanks pony.
