Camera Repairs

Trip Start May 01, 2010

Trip End Oct 15, 2010

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Blanqueta Hostal

Flag of Bolivia La Paz, La Paz, Bolivia
Friday, September 3, 2010

After Uyuni, we were well and truely exhausted so we slept like logs on our night bus to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at 3,650 meters above sea level. There is a huge snow capped mountain that looms over the city, and as we decended down the mountain and into the awe inspiring city that is La Paz, the views of the small houses and narrow cobbled streets clinging to the mountain were amazing. The combination of the altitude and the hazey smog that sits over the city, can make breathing rather difficult, but after Uyuni, it was a piece of cake!

As we arrived early, we had time to wander around with our bags on and find a good place to stay, we were lucky as Jamie found us a very cheap, clean option right in the centre with hot water which is a novelty in these parts. We spent most of our first day sleeping and sussing out the good places to eat. Unfortunately, our camera broke in Uyuni, so we have no pictures of La Paz, but we did find a little repair shop- Tecnologia Fotografica for anyone who needs it who did an excellent job of repairs. The only problem was we needed to wait a week for it, so we organised a few trips from La Paz to occupy our time.

First, we visited Tiwanaku, the pre Inca civilisation located approximately 70km from La Paz. We had a fantastic guide who did not stop talking about Tiwanaku from the moment we left until we arrived back. Tiwanaku itself is not as impressive as other ruins in South America, but thanks to the guide, we had an excellent insight into their culture and history. A very cold, but interesting day out!

Jamie had set his heart on cycling down the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road", not trusting my biking skills, I let him do that one on his own! He said it was fantastic, even though the weather was appalling and he came home soaked to the bone. The views were disguised by cloud- which is probably lucky as he did not have a camera anyway! The road is 3 meters wide, and before the newer safer road was built, it was a main thoroughfare- obviously with an enormous amount of accidents with cars and buses driving off the 500 plus meter cliff which drops off the side with little or no protection...not for me thank you but he enjoyed himself!

La Paz is the best place in the world to buy cheap DVDs. They might not be real, but on the whole the quality is good so we spent a few hours each day catching up on the latest movies and box sets courtsey of the lap top! The food was pretty good, and fairly cheap so we had two three course meals a day and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

We wanted to visit Lake Titicaca, but with not many days left on our visa and a camera to wait for, we decided to go from La Paz but back track afterwards to pick up the camera.