La Paz

So, here I am in La Paz and feeling the effects of the extra few thousand feet of altitude -- slight headache and nausea and puffy eyes. I have been lucky once again in that I have a room in a lovely old colonial hotel at half the rate because the director of the project I've come to work on is a friend of the owner. The hotel is ecological and has solar heated water so hot showers are available all day! Great.

The bus journey from Copacabana began with the usual chaotic sorting out of tickets from various agencies and then a trek uphill to the place where the bus was parked. For once, I'm glad that I'm not taller as the seats are not built for long legs and are rather cramped. Our journey was a short one, only four hours. People seem to travel huge distances via the bus networks and a journey of 20 hours is not unusual. Quite a different attitude. I find 13 hours of flying taxes me and the thought of longer on a bus where you cannot get up and move around .... well, that's a whole different experience. The German woman who sat next to me had done a number of long journeys and said that you just shut your eyes and pray because Health & Safety Regulations simply don't apply.

Our route took us along the side of Lake Titicaca a lot of the time. The lake is vast and I don't know if it's fresh or salt water but it seems like a sea with waves and levels that fluctuate. On the other side, the mountain vistas were incredible, especially the snowy peaks of the Cordillera.

The scenery and way of life seemed similar to Peru but subtley different in a way I cannot describe. We passed great dry river beds despite the fact that this is rainy season and there should have been plentiful water. Diane, my host here, told me that they have had an unusually dry few weeks but that if there was significant rainfall, then the rivers would be in spate and flash floods are not unusual. As in other parts of the Andes, the glaciers are noticeably smaller year by year and the one above the city which used to be a ski centre is now bare rock.

At one point we all had to leave the bus for a ferry crossing to the other side of the lake. Again, in all the seeming haphazard chaos, all was well managed. The bus boarded a special flat bedded vessel and we passengers a series of small boats. Once safely across, we boarded our bus and continued.

Coming in to La Paz is quite amazing. The bus passed through the poorer outskirts and suddenly we were aware of the main city way way below. It was like looking down into a crater and seeing a sprawling city there. We descended via a wide autopista through great sweeping curves under cliffs of soft rock and eucalyptus trees and rivulets of decidedly non living water. Suddenly we were in densely crowded tiny streets and, having slowly negotiated our way, we suddenly stopped -- we had arrived, and in a different street from the one I had expected to be met in. Luckily, by the time all the luggage had been handed down from the top of the bus, Diane had found me and the hotel was not far away.

So, here I am, slightly scared to venture out into a city that is somewhat dangerous. Diane was telling me that she herself had been kidnapped and held for two hours whilst her credit card and PIN had been taken from her. She was released then and as there was no money in her account, she was financially none the worse for the experience! So, I've had warnings to be extemely careful at all times as I'm in a very touristy area and therefore one of high risk. Help!! I trust my Guardian Angel is putting in the extra shifts.