Bits and bobs in La Paz

We hung around in La Paz for quite a while.  One of the good things we did was the free Red Cap walking tours.  Ther's no upfront cost, you just tip what you think at the end (a la Hairy Coo bus tours in Edinburgh).  Given the altitude, they take it easy - slow walks to interesting sites and then you sit down while they tell you a story about each place.  One of the stops is a market where we had the opportunity to buy a snack and drink.  The guides recommended 'super vitaminico' juice, so Paul ordered one of those.  They whizz it up right in front of you so you know it's freshly made - the first thing she put in the blender was a whole egg, shell and all!!!!  It made for a fairly gritty drink.....mmmmmmm.

One girl ordered mango juice from another stall and the woman put mango in the blender with the skin still on, so with every sip she was picking bits of skin out of her mouth!!!  Crazy.

We did better on the snacks though; these are 'papas rellenas' or filled potato - deep fried mash potato balls stuffed with a minced meat filling.

The tour ended on the 17th floor of the Hotel President for a view of the city.

You can also abseil down the outside of the hotel.  We stayed behind after the end of the tour to see 3 people do it, one of them in a Spiderman costume!  This is her practising:

That evening was bonfire night, so there was a mini bonfire with a Guy Fawkes on the roof of the hostel we stayed at.

A couple of days later, Paul and I were in the San Pedro district of La Paz looking to buy a waterproof camera for our trip to the jungle and wetlands.  We didn't really have any luck on that front as electronics are really expensive in Bolivia and waterproof cameras don't seem to be in demand.  But we did try a typical Bolivian lunch.  There weren't many eating options in San Pedro so we just went in to a random little restaurant that we stumbled across.  I think they had two lunch options but one was sold out, so we had no choice - we got a vegetable soup starter and then a breaded pork fillet (Milanese) with rice and salad and a bottle of coke all for 10Bs (90p) each!!  And we didn't get sick or anything - double yay!

(The roof was made of corrugated yellow plastic so the room had an atmospheric yellow hue)