I'm always asking other travelers what they've enjoyed along the way. When I asked about LaPaz, a German guy, who had taken 2 City Tours plus a walking tour said, "Whatever you do, don't miss the Mirador Kilikili." So, we hired a taxi driver for a couple of hours and asked to see where local people live and the Mirador. The driver took us up winding hills until we reached the peak of a mountain. We hopped out, picked up our jaws, and started snapping photos. The surrounding hillsides were packed with 2 million homes built right into the mountains. According to our taxi driver, not all homes make it through the landslides of the rainy season.
The Mirador was awesome, but that wasn't all we loved about La Paz. We found a spa that offered 1 hour hot rocks couples side-by-side full body massages for $11.50. We enjoyed the experience so much that we went back a second time as a reward for finishing our language classes. The gal hugging Mark was enamored with "Clark Kent," and believed he was a fighter, and wanted to be his manager. I could hardly blame her. I had the same reaction when I saw him strip down to his crime-fighting underwear.
We stayed at the Hotel Majestic, so this was the view on the street before the vender stands got hopping. There were all kinds of interesting things for sale: candies, insence, dead baby llama fetuses... that last one was tough to walk past. For good luck, some people burry them below their home or businesss. I'm telling you, South America has a thing about dead stuff. The cemetaries, the ceremonies, the child sacrifices, the dead baby llamas... it kind of creeps me out, but along the lines of dead stuff, I did see my first zombie movie in La Paz. It was World War Z, in English, 3D. I was scared, and for a full two days later, I obsessed about zombies being everywhere.
These weren't zombies (below), just protestors. It's a daily thing here. This protest was comprised of government transit workers. They wanted to have their uniforms made in Bolivia rather than imported from Chile.
(Also below: police, at the protest) There were loud fireworks, but overall, it was a peaceful stand-in followed by a march through the main thouroughfare.
On our taxi drive, we drove past Simon Bolivar's rock carving. As a generalization, Bolivians very proud of their founder.
We spent 20 hours in La Paz taking Spanish lessons at Pico Verde language school. We had 3 private instructors, but we spent the most time with a linguist named France (pictured below).
Next to Pico Verde, there was a New Mexican restaurant/bar. We met the owners, a young Bolivian and a Danish gal. They were super excited about their new place. The decor was super fun, so I'm including pictures (because it also reinforces the whole obsessed with the dead theme).
I love the signage here. It lets us know that we can't eat or drink inside of the computers. Apparently it's also been a problem with tourists trying to actually eat the computers? :-)
There's this cute little cafe down the street that has this sign that I like. It says we're all equal in the eyes of the law: Black and white, male and female, fully-able and disabled, young and elderly. It makes me love La Paz even more.
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