Hola Everybody:

We made it safely to La Paz, no problem. Last time I wrote I forgot to say that we were in Arica, Chile which is where the Atacama desert ends. Arica was a lot livelier than Iquique. Our hotel room there was the worst yet but somehow they had a pool and it was actually pretty good so it made up for the shitty, little room. We only stayed two nights so it was relatively painless. The bus trip to La Paz took about 10 hours and although we had taken the pills we did experience some discomfort in the form of a headache and pins and needles sensations in your feet and hands. You couldn't put your hands down a lot and had to keep rubbing them together. It takes at least a good day to recover from such a trip. Nevertheless the scenery was spectacular although we couldn't take that many pictures because the bus windows were quite dirty. We saw similar scenery to what we had seen on our trip to San Pedro with an incredibly high snowcapped mountain towering above all the rest. There were lots of alpacas, vicunas and lamas but too far away to take good pictures.

We are staying in a really cool hotel in the old sector of La Paz. The room is nice and big, with cable T.V. etc.. and it's 25 U.S. a night so it doesn't break our budget. The shower is something else though. I'm too short to adjust the hot and cold flow output, it's super high so Stan and I have to take our showers together. We had not done that in a while! Secondly it's either boiling hot or cold so there's no real in between. It's a challenge but we are managing. La Paz is a real jumble, the streets are super narrow and steep with a cathedral, it seems, every second corner. It's hard to get a handle on initially because it seems so chaotic. I have never seen so many vans in my life. There are basically no private cars or very few. Transport is assured through a mix of combis, (vans big and small), collectivos whiich are taxis that take different passengers, buses and regular taxis. The traffic is horrendous. Crossing streets could be injurious to your health, they don't strop for anybody. The chollas, the women who wear numerous skirts and bowler hats, set up shops on the streets and sell all manner of items. Today we went to the Coca museum. Coca is a huge part of the indigenous culture. We sampled it in tea, no effect. You have to chew it to get something out of it but you have to stick a huge wad in your mouth, add some sort of soda bicarbonate, a little saliva and wait for the whole thing to liquefy before you feel any effect. We haven't gotten to that stage yet. La Paz is quite a surprise overall. I was expecting to be besieged by vendors and kids but there is none of that or very little. They don't insist at all if you don't want to buiy. There is very little bargaining to be had.

There are beautiful handicrafts but we have very little extra room left in our packs so we can't buy much. Today we had lunch for two for about $2.50 in a comedor ( a worker's restaurant).

We will be staying here another two nights and then we are off to Lake Titicaca and Copacabana. Our health is good. We seem to have gotten used to the altitude and are no longer feeling any ill effects. We wanted to go into the Yungas, a semi-tropical region but there has been lots of rain and there is a threat of dengue fever from mosquitoes. We don't want to risk it. Hope everybody is well.

Lots of love,

Josiane

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