This afternoon I took the bus from Copacabana to La Paz. Gildas and Céline, the French couple were on the same bus and we chatted quite a bit, with my seat neighbour, a guy from Uruguay living in Bolivia since 3 years and working for an environmental non-governmental organisation. On our way, we had to get off the boat at the Tiquina strait, which separates the two parts of the Titicaca lake.. there is no bridge and the buses go on quite basic ferries while we had to go on small boats for the 15 minutes crossing. When we saw how the buses went on the ferries, we knew why we had toi get off and, actually, I was very glad not to be in the bus on that ferry-thing... The bus made it however safely as well...
La Paz is actually not the judicial capital of Bolivia (which is Sucre), however, most of the governmenbt institutions are located here and often it is referred to as the de facto capital. You enter the town through "El Alto", the area on top of the hill, where most of the poor people live and which has become a city of its own, which is actually the fastest growing city of Southern America. Form the bus we could oberserve the dynamic life there.. traffinc was just crazy... then the road winds down almost 500 m to the city centre of La Paz.. which is built on a slope.
Fortunately, my hotel was in short walking distance from the point where the bus dropped us off.. we were warned in advance of the various dangers waiting in La Paz and therefore I was glad I did not have to walk far. The hotel turned out to be extremely ugly in a not so nice (though safe..!!) area in the centre of the city. Just opposite, there is a huge ruin of several houses which were torn down and a few meters further, there is probably the city's largest construction site.. the hotel is old fashioned, the decoration (if you can call it liek that) horrible and there is no heating in the room... The fact that the rooms is clean is probable the only reason why the Lonely Planet recommended it.. I thought of changing, but then I did not as this is quite a hassle... Tonight I walked around a bit in the safe central area (which is full of people...) and had a nice traditional dinner... now going for a good night drink ... Cheers !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment