Days 20 - 22 - Final day in La Paz then a 12 hour night bus to the administrative capital, Sucre!
 
Shattered and really needing a good full day in bed to recuperate we dragged ourselves out of bed and packed as check out from our cosy room was needed, tonight was a night bus! Slowly we looked around the vibrant capital La Paz . It was a wicked place, one I think you either love or hate but for us the bustling nature and people watching was fun. I for some reason had been hit with the altitude again so it took many small steps to do even the shortest of hills whilst I huffed and puffed away and felt generally run down trying to gather breath.

We took in some of the sights slowly, the beautiful San Francisco church and main Zocalo lined mainly by municipal buildings and the cathedral which today had a wedding going on, no we didn't stop to get tips! The streets were just mental with ladies from the hills, donning their traditional bolivian bowler style hats, selling everything from jelly to lipstick to electricals!! It has amazed Ads and I in the last 2 countries how so into their jelly, pastries and blamonche they all are! Amongst the mayhem on the streets was also the hundreds of collectivo's and brightly striped local old buses jam packed on the roads, reminiscent at times of crazy Nepal but a lot less so in madness. The houses built on top of each other high up the mountain valleys all around was pretty spectacular and as I attempted to walk up the steep hills we also passed the local markets and witches market where llama foetuses and god knows how many herbal/dodgy looking things were hanging. I knew I wasn't feeling right though as I couldn't even manage looking in one craft shop much to Ads delight!
 
After saying goodbye sadly to the very funny Irish uni professor Kieron (Theresa was unfortunately ill with altitude), we got taxis to the bus station ready for our night bus . Sucre had been declared as medium/high ish risk due to loads of unrest going on at the moment in the country so this was going to an interesting visit. As usual I was anxious about the whole 'bus' affair but after seeing the HUGE comfy 'CAMA' seats you got plus the windows opened and it was a single decker I could see this would be copable. During the long journey we got to watch Bilynda's Sex in the City pirate movie much to Adams distaste then on route slept intermittently through the long night. The bus was like the Artic, frigging freezing but for me that is a lot better than mega hot! It was hard to see the landscape in detail but all I could take in was that Bolivia really is remote and vast, for hours we saw the occasional mud hut and that was it as we passed flat and arid landscape then winded through more mountainous areas. It looked so dry and desert like and with the clear moonlight sky shining down made me imagine that this is the scene you would see when arriving on the moon!
 
Soon the sun was up and we were nearing Sucre. This area being the richest in Bolivia, the home of the parliamentary and government staff was very apparent and on reaching the town the size of the houses really stood out, there was even a posh golf club, it was hard to believe this was Bolivia. Sucre changed vastly as you drove through the white arches (except for the random metal toilet in the middle of the high street!) of the city and the white impressive colonial buildings were a vast contrast to anything we had yet seen yet this in this country . Very tired though we all crashed into bed and for Ads and I we soon realised how tired we were as everyone had a few hours sleep whilst we didn't surface till 7 hours later in the late afternoon!! Ooops. After a much needed sandwich and great pancakes at a wicked local café called 'Joy Rider Café' with Ian, we then joined the rest of the group at the same place that eve for beers and a few attempts at card games on mum by the ozzie guy Jason also. Keep up the practicing Jase!!
 
The next day again was a chilled one for me and Ads, the others went off to explore some dinosaur footprints in the hills whilst we, both tired and needing to save money watched movies in bed then wandered around the square and had coffee. The Zocalo was very impressive, beautifully landscaped gardens and fountains, bright white colonial vast buildings, not at all what we expected of such a poor country. It sounded from mum and Ian that perhaps the dinosaur / human looking prints weren't up to much so thankfully we didn't miss out too much. That eve the four of us went to a rather cool jazz/blues type café for dinner where mum attempted some Peruvian maize bland dish which tasted of... well.... nothing and my chicken and 'smashed potatoes' arrived on a bed of brown lettuce so a funny night with lots of laughs was had by the four of us together over a few beers and chocolate pancakes, whilst the others sampled the local Sushi.