After Tobi and I got to Cochabamba I went looking for a place to get my camera repaired. And I found one but due to the easter holidays they weren't able to do it the next day. However, as I didn't want to travel without or with a broken camera it was clear to me that I'd have to spend at least one week in Cochabamba. For Tobi this was not an option, he desperately wanted to move on. So it came that this chapter of my travels came to an end.
To shorten the wait I took a week of Spanish classes, one on one. It was really great but didn't exactly help me to get some much needed rest und I'm rather exhausted by now. We'll see when I find the time for a real break...
Monday I then took the bus from Cochabamba to La Paz. What a trip, 8h for 350km!!! In a bus without toilet and the first stop was after 5h :/ But you've got to get used to is in Bolivia. At least they are building new roads all over the place and in 2 years you'll be able to do this route in 6h. Travelling with me was Annie from Scotland. She had celebrated her 50th birthday here in January and has also quit her job.
So now I'm in La Paz, what a city!!! I've never seen the likes of it before.
Since 2014 a net of cable cars has been erected by Dopplmeyr from Austria :) And as chance wants it a station for the yellow line is only two blocks away from the hostel. So Annie and I went up to the "summit station". It's at an altitude of about 4,100m! There we sat in a café, had a coffee and enjoyed the view. I've never had a view like this before me, wow...
La Paz extends over about 700 meters in hight!!! Between the houses up here there are only few roads but many, many stairs!
It reminds me a little about Valparaiso. Only that the houses are of much better quality.
They even have a suspension bridge!!! How cool is that?
And as in every city in Bolivia there are old busses from Dodge. Of course operated on regular fuel!!! They seem to be better suited for the thin air than their Diesel driven cousins... Because the geography of La Paz is very demanding there are millions of taxis, mini busses and busses which stop more or less everywhere when signalled by hand. This leads to very chaotic traffic in the city. Also the supply of fresh water is an issue and not all parts of the city have running water all the time. So the city has to deal with problems but is definitely worth a visit!
On our way back into the city we came by the Mercado de las Brujas, the witches market. However, it's more of a tourist trap where you can get jewellery, trinkets and clothing.
Only if you look closer into some shops then dead Lama fetuses are staring back at you... You can get them in many different sizes and colors. They are burried for example in the foundations of your new house to bring you luck :)
After sunset we took the cable car again to have a view of the city at night, awesome.
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