We're in La Paz! Amazing-looking city nestled in to a valley. The highest capital in the world (3,660m). The streets are so steep we almost got stuck after getting caught at a red light before the crest of a particularly steep incline. Thank god Paul was driving - with a little verbal encouragement we managed to coax the van over!
When we were in Potosi, we had wondered if the body remembers altitude so you don't have to acclimatise again. The answer is no - at the end of our stay in Potosi, I'd been able to walk more briskly without getting too out of breath. Here, we're back to square one - it's knackering doing anything!
A good thing about driving ourselves is that we've been able to stop at good vista points. These were taken from the side of the autopista in to La Paz.
On the way, we passed through a number of toll booths as usual. You tell them where you're going and pay the appropriate fee, usually 4-6 Bolivianos (the total for Cochabamba to La Paz was about 16Bs). Anyway, at one booth (in Confital) Paul had to show his driving licence and passport, which was a first. Then the dude wanted to see that we had a fire extinguisher, which was unusual but we had one, so ok. Then he wanted to see our warning triangle! Again, we have one, but it meant climbing in to the back and opening the Cupboard Of Things We'll Never Need. When we thought there couldn't possibly be anything else he wanted to see, he asked for our first aid kit! It felt like that game show where they went to your house and asked you to throw certain items out of the window and if you had them all you won a prize (Paul says it was Don't Forget Your Toothbrush). Luckily, Vix got us first aid kits before we left, so we had everything they wanted to see and they had to let us through! I was quite chuffed about that - it felt like they were trying to catch us out and failed - not sure what we'd have had to do had we not had everything.
Now here are some other pictures of interesting things that have happened. To get the van out of the hostel grounds in Cochabamba, we had to bend the spikes above the gate more. When I say 'we' I mean one of the guys refurbishing the derelict building.
He was incredibly strong. Paul says it was just because he had a longer pole. Whatever the reason, he did the job and we got out without making any more holes in the roof.
Food-wise, we got some interesting bread in Cochabamba, with cheese baked in - didn't taste too cheesy and gave it an interesting texture, so I like.
We also found cheese made in Mizque - the village where we camped on a family farm. Again, acceptable cheese to me.
We are also trying to start a continental South American war with the first annual Mabley-Liu Dulce de Leche competition. Here we have (from top to bottom) Paraguay v Bolivia v Argentina.
Staying on food, here's one of the meals we had at the hostel in Cochabamba: chicken with all the carbs - rice, chips and noodles! No wonder the van is struggling up the hills!
And finally on the food front, South American breakfast cereal: quinoa pops.
Texture like sugar puffs but not as sweet.
In other news, we had a new experience buying fuel. At a station in Carracollo en route to La Paz, the dude said it was 9 Bolivianos a litre for foreigners but we could have it for 7 if we didn't want a receipt (factura). We'd heard about this 'no receipt' clause but when we'd said we didn't want a receipt at the other fuel stations it didn't seem to make a difference. So we got double price instead of triple this time. Woo.