La Paz

Well I´m now on my own properly! Last night was the end of the trip that took me from Lima to here, La Paz. I´ve had to check out of the very nice hotel that GAP put us up in and checked into a hostel, and the first taste of the accommodation to come...at least it´s clean though. It´s costing the same in bolivianos as the hotel was charging in dollars...(there´s about 8 bolivianos to the dollar!)

I´m planning on being here for the next couple of days, just settling down to being on my own and sorting out where to go next. And I'm really liking La Paz! It's a buzzing interesting city so different from London.

Yesterday I went on a city tour that took me through the area where all the hostels and hotels are, which is rather poor and because of this has many street vendors and markets so is very bustling and busy. This is extremely different to the rich southern area of the city where all the politicians and foreign diplomats live, where it is about 10 degrees hotter because it's about 1000 meters lower. The difference between the living standards of these 2 areas are massive; the polititcan´s area could easily have been in a European city, where as the area where we are staying could never be confused with a western area.
The 'moon valley' is located in the rich area and is a rather barren landscape of sandstone that has been erroded into spectacular peaks and troughs. I have to admit that I don't understand why it is so desireable to live next to this! Then we went back into the central and middle class area and past the church where couples queue to get married on Saturdays and the sevices are very short because of the many waiting outside! The tour took us then to a museum of masks, and I learned that masks are a large part of the festivals that happen in Bolivia, and many of these make fun of the spanish. Something that I have learned about myself so far is that I am much more interested in the social history of the places that I am visiting rather than the political history, which although is of course interesting, doesn't capture my imagination as much.

So now everything I do is up to me and that is a wonderful feeling!! I've already met some very nice Aussies (Emma and Sam) and will probably spend the next few days with them, so I'm not really on my own!

I hope that you're all getting into the excited kind of Christmas spirit. It is very odd seeing decorations for sale here that are exactly the same as those at home, but it's about 15 degrees hotter than I'm used to at this time of year!

Love bec xx