Our second day in La Paz was another lackadaisical one, as the altitude was still taking its hold upon us and making us tired. Our main goal for the day was to book our tour for The Death Road (more on this in the next post!), and explore a few local sites.
We strolled through the Witches Market without even realizing it, thinking that the petrified llamas and alpacas were just a tourist gimmick and for show. We had discussed long and hard about which tour company to go with for our Yungas Road and settled on Madness, which has an office located in the heart of the touristic district here in La Paz.
We played a little hard to get and told the lady in the office we were shopping around and had heard the tour was for cheaper than we knew it to be. We had our choice between a solid frame and full suspension frame bike, with the price that was proposed to us being about a $20 dollars difference. We settled for the bulkier, more suspended frame for the sake of our already aching legs, signed the papers, payed the money and made our way out of the office. Our main goal here in La Paz was to do the Yungas Road, a/k/a The Death Road, so we were excited to have it settled and booked.
Our next stop was Plaza Murillo, the main heart of the government district of the city. The Legislative branch offices, Presidential Palace and National Cathedral were located on the square. We lazed around and enjoyed the Christmas decorations and the tree set up, but nothing else really appealed to us. Our only other stop was to see the grave of Andres de Santa Cruz, who was once president of both Peru and Bolivia, and the short lived Peru-Bolivian Confederation. His tomb was very ornate (as seen below) with the colors of both nations. This was of particular interest to me as I have read much about this period in the history. His grave was guarded by a soldier we jokingly referred to as a nutcracker, for his distinctly red ornate outfit, which much resembled the classic toy.
Cheap pizza was in store for dinner before hitting the sheets early in anticipation for our early morning ride to the Yungas Road.
Gavin y June
more after the break:
2 comments:
He really does look like a Nutcracker! How funny that such serious uniforms almost look like costumes!
Hey guys, your adventure sure is heating up, and you still have so much to see that you have not seen before. Linda came up with an idea to get some free meals or possibly free tours (like your bike ride coming up). If you tell the owners of the tours or restaurants that you have this blog, maybe they will trade you something for some free advertising if you tell them that you will show them in your blog...
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