La Paz

On Tuesday afternoon I headed to the San Sebastian Church where I got a guided tour of the museum and could climb up the bell tower for a view over the city. The next morning I trekked through town and up to the Mirador Killi Killi for a great view over the entire city. The city looks very nice stuck in a big bowl, with mountains surrounding it on almost all four sides. This was a great spot so I spent several hours laying in the sun and enjoying the view. In the afternoon I visited the Coca museum where they showed how to process it to cocaine and had a good stab at the USA for consuming it all. Cocaine seems to be everywhere in this town. There are even bars that ask you how many grams you would like when you order a cerveza.
I moved to the Loki Hostel in search of some more social scene. First stop for the night was the Loki hotel, then we moved on to Mongos and later on we ended up at Traffic for some dancing. I had to crash early at 3am to go mountain bike riding in the morning, but when I got up at 6am everyone else was just arriving back... not bad for a Wednesday night out!
I headed into town and had a quick bacon and eggs with our riding team of 6 people and then drove up to the lake at La Cumbre at 4700m. This was the start of our ride down ´the world´s most dangerous road´. Surrounding us were 6000m + mountains and glaciers so we put on all the warm clothes we had before setting off on the ride. After several kilometers we left the paved road and flew down the original road. The ride was amazing with the road cut into the cliffs and going right under waterfalls. We had 2 guides, the owner of the company and the other was the number 3 mountain biker in Bolivia, so we had a cracking pace and completed the 50km track almost 2 hours ahead of the usual speed. We finished at the animal refuge in Yolosa at 1100m where we enjoyed the warm, humid weather, the extra oxygen, a warm shower, swim in the pool and a big buffet lunch. The animal refuge also had plenty of little monkeys, macaws and other animals they had rescued from the markets.
Since we had plenty of spare time we decided to drive back up the dangerous road rather than the new road which is normally taken. This allowed us to enjoy the scenery without worrying about flying off the side of the road and straight down the big cliffs (which happens regularly!).
Friday morning I was stuck in town for the day so I could get the all clear from the dentist in the morning. This was acheived, then I enjoyed a big lunch near the main plaza and spent several hours burning all the photos of the last few months to CD. In the evening I went with the guys from Loki to Mongos for a big mexican burrito, then back to the Loki bar, back to Mongos and eventually to Traffic for a good night out.
Saturday I got up early to wait to be picked up for a trip to the summit of Chacaltaya. After waiting an hour we discovered the trip had been cancelled. So I headed down to the company to find something to do. All other tours had left so I got a lift with one of the drivers who was heading to the Huayni Potosi (6088m) base camp where he was picking up the team that had just reached the summit that morning. From the base camp I trekked up to the glacier and enjoyed the view of the mountain and the Cordillera Real. I joined the climbers on their return to the bottom where we had a big meal waiting for us.
Back in La Paz I headed to the local pizzeria with another Aussie bloke. We were tempted by the largest pizza available which had a diameter of 1.5m, but opted for a smaller one when they didn´t have a table big enough to eat the giant pizza off. I then caught up with my Bolivian mates from the previous day and a few extra people and cruised over to the Hard Rock Cafe where they had a live band playing through the night.
This morning I had another early start and the tour to Chacaltaya actually showed up. We drove up through the suburb of El Alto at 4000m, and continued up to the highest ski resort in the world. It was out of season for the snow (the glacier has shunk 80% in the last 20 years anyway, so is almost unskiable), so instead we began the trek to the summit. After less than an hour we summitted the 5421m peak of Chacaltaya.
We then drove back through La Paz to the Valley of the Moon where there is a clay valley that has eroded over many years to form a strange landscape of columns and deep holes.
Tomorrow I hope to take the bus over to Copacobana from where I will visit Lake Titicaca.