Gasping for Air

Route: La Paz

Time: 10am - 4pm

Highlights: Today we take it easy. After breakfast at the hotel we descend into the city. At the beginning we are latched onto our photo bags. While the city is extremely busy, the atmosphere is relaxed (you would probably expect this at this altitude). La Paz is full of live nothing like Santiago de Chile. The only hectic part is the traffic, it is dense. Shared taxis cruise by shouting their destinations.

We make our way to San Francisco church, a heavy weight in South America. Then we walk through zillions of stalls selling from juices over jellies to sun glasses. We end up at the other side of the city at the bus terminal where we make the reservation for the trip back to Arica in two weeks. From there we head for Plaza Murillo with governmental buildings and the cathedral around it. The square is full of people and pigeons (close to the number you would expect to find in Venice). I hide under a tree for obvious reasons (by the way it is a common thief´s trick to spray something on you and then offer "help" to clean it).

Temperatures: Warm with a jacket on, cool in the shade, thus perfect for visiting a large city.

Tip of the day: Forget travellers cheques. They are hard to exchange and yield a lower exchange rate at that (same applies for Chile). Either bring cash or use your maestro card at one of many ATMs.
Banks and "casas de cambio" offer the same exchange rates.