La Paz Photos

Finally, here are our La Paz pictures. We spent 10 days in La Paz, Tiwanaku, Copacabana and Isla del Sol (on Lake Titicaca) over Christmas break. It was a great trip, but it was all between 12,500-13,500 feet in elevation. To put that in perspective, that is more than 2,000 feet HIGHER than the summit of Mt. Hood. Our kids have a tough time with those altitudes, despite the fact that they are acclimated to 8,500 feet (which is what Cochabamba is). We learned the hard way that we really need to limit their exposure to those heights. Everyone coming down with stomach amoebas didn´t help much, nor did 10 days of eating horrible Bolivian food.


Pic: La familia at the Tiwanaku ruins (circa 700 AD).


Pic: La Paz skyline. La Paz is called ¨The Big Gash¨ because it sits in a valley dramatically carved out of the altiplano. At the lip of the gash is El Alto, which dukes it out with Potosi for the title of the World´s Highest City.


Pic: Jane and her Aymara friends on Isla del Sol. These native indians either descended from the Incans, or pre-date them. Forgive my lack of recall. Anyway, let me say that Aymarans are possibly the nicest people on the face of the earth. Isla del Sol was worth the hassle to get there.


Pic: Jim and his coca bag. Possession of this 25 cent bag of coca leaves could get me a long stretch in prison in the US. Chewing coca is the only way to deal with the altitude. Plus, you make a lot of friends by giving them a handfull of these magic leaves. The only time I got sick up here was when I could not chew coca due to a badly upset stomach caused by yet another delicious (gag!) meal of Bolivian ¨food¨.


View the rest of the pictures here. Just cut and paste this into your browsers window:

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAM2jls5cs2rC8g