La Paz

Wednesday

Took an 8 hour trip via 3 busses and a ferry from Puno in Peru to La Paz in Bolivia.

It was a fun day, but rather eventful. We didn't arrive till 5pm. We all got through the border crossing successfully, except that our guide got detained and refused entry, so our bus took off without him. Some anxious minutes for the worriers in our group.

However, to cut a long story short, he caught 3 taxis and went to the next border crossing 50 kms away and walked through there. Lo and behold he was waiting for us at our hotel, as he didn't have the delay of the ferry crossing to slow him down.

Our ferry crossing was fun. You got off your bus, and it drove onto a barge, and you got into a speedboat for the crossing. Halfway across we noticed that a barge with another bus on board had broken down, and was floating away across the lake with the wind using the bus as a sail.

We then twigged to the fact that it was a 15 year old boy driving our boat, with his 10 year old brother manning the ropes, and there weren't any lifejackets - it is Bolivia. But we all survived.

Thursday

Our day for seeing La Paz.

The group got a half day city tour. Saw Moon Canyon, an old erosion formation in the bed of the main river downstream from La Paz that is so desolate and eroded that it looks like the surface of the moon.

Then on to San Pedro jail. Had a chat from a former inmate. The jail is run by inmates, and guards only man the outside gate. No bars anywhere. Inmates have keys to their cells which they buy and sell when they leave. They work in the jail to earn money to buy their food. Barber
shops, restaurants and all manner of services are run by inmates to earn money. Wives and children can live with the prisoners, and are free to come and go.

Saw the gold and mask museums, then on to the witches market where all manner of things are sold. Typical is buying minatures of things that you wish for (minature diplomas etc). Our guide bought minature children. Guess what he wants. You can also buy things as offerings -
llama foetuses for example. They didn't look too impressed I can tell you.

Then the afternoon spent shopping at the markets - Bolivia is quite cheap.

Our farewell tour dinner at a Thai restaurant at night.