Exploring La Paz

While we only planned to sleep for a hour, it was 9am before we raised our heads from the pillow. Obviously we needed the rest!

Breakfast was served in a cute patio outside our room. A buffet of toast,cereal, tea and juice. Being late to rise we arrived just as the other guests all left. A piece of toast and tea for each of us and we were ready to explore the city.
Normally we would just hit the streets and hope we were going in the right direction. Today we decided to stop and book a city tour before we left the hotel. It was scheduled for 1:30 so we had several hours to explore on our own .
All the streets of La Paz look like a market, with women and men lining the edge of the sidewalk to sell their wares. Fresh fruit, vegetables,spices and nuts all ready for you to buy. The small stores behind the sidewalk were like small kiosks, packed full with everything you could possibly need. We later learned that each street was designated for specific goods. Tools on one street, electronics on another and all types of clothing another. It just feels like a big farmer's market and the prices extremely inexpensive. For the equivalent of $4 Cdn you can purchase a great pair of jeans. If only my backpack wasn't close to full before leaving home...lol. We decided not to purchase anything quite yet as we have a long way to go.

After exploring the streets for a few hours it was time for some lunch. Looking for any sign that indicated restaurant we found one that was filled with Bolivians. Keeping to our belief that if the locals eat here it must be a good place, we went in and took a seat. A few minutes later the waiter brought us each a green salad. The interesting fact was we had yet to see the menu, but the salad arrived and we ate it. Next an interesting very large bowl of vegetable soup arrived. Not sure exactly what it was we ate it. Thinking that was probably it, we thought there is nothing wrong with a nice soup and salad for lunch. Much to our surprise a few minutes later the main entree arrived. Rice and some type of hamburger meat. I was already full so we only accepted one serving. We decided we better ask for the bill before they brought us anymore food. It was all extremely tasty but we honestly couldn't eat another bite. Having no idea how much our meal cost we headed up to the cash register to learn that including tip we had spent a whopping $7.
It was time to head back to the hotel to start our city tour.

The best $30 we ever spent. We had our own personal tour guide and driver who took us through the streets of La Paz. Like every city it has its very poor sections and very rich sections. The difference is that the rich people live in the center of town and the poor live high on the hills surrounding the core of the city. Red brick houses blend into the red rock of the mountain side. Truly a site to see. The center of town is at the lowest elevation in the area and the streets leading away from the core are a steep climb upward.
Did I mention La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 13,000 ft above sea level? That being said we did find ourselves a bit breathless after a few climbs.

The tour then took us to the Valle de la Luna or in English The Valley of the Moon. I am not sure that words can even describe the view. The most interesting eolic formations caused by erosion. We walked over narrow paths to view the sites and shapes etched into the rocks. A little unnerving as we carefully made our way arouund formations.

From here we saw the highest soccer field in the world and the made our way back to the center of town.