I crossed the border together with two Czech guys and two Slovakian girls who were very nice people. They'd had the same idea as me (get to the border the evening before going to La Paz in order to have time to visit Tihuanacu along the way). They also said they'd met many other Belgians already (told ya) and that one of them was also going to visit Atlanta on the flight home - another brilliant idea of mine that turns out to be not unique :( Anyway I had fun talking about the Czech/Slovak split with both parties involved at once, and of course exchange about past travel adventures and future plans.

After formalities and on the Bolivian side of the border I found us a bus that was on its way from Cuzco to La Paz and arranged with the driver that it would drop us near Tihuanacu (about halfway between the border and La Paz). I took an hour before the bus actually left, but an hour later it dropped us near Tihuanacu. The five of us walked the 1 km or so to the site and left our backpacks at the entrance, and then I said goodbye and explored the site by myself.

Tihuanacu was the capital of a powerful civilisation that lasted from about 700BC to 1200AD. Unfortunately the Spanish looted most of the stones for their own buildings so there's just some foundations and a handful of sculptures left and it totally wasn't worth going to. It adds one site to my list of World Heritage sites visited though, so I don't regret it :)

I walked to the modern village near the site, had lunch, and the restaurant stopped a microbus going to La Paz for me. Since these microbusses depart in the village I could just get on it before it was crammmed full of locals. As we drove away I saw my Czech and Slowak companions walking towards the highway where we'd been dropped off, so they were gonna have to fight for a seat to La Paz.

So things were going smoothly with me arriving in La Paz at around 16h. What I hadn't counted on was that the microbusses from Tihuanacu don't go to La Paz proper, but to El Alto. Let me explain.

La Paz is a crazy city built at 3660m inside a canyon in the altiplano, the 4000m high plain that covers most of southern Peru and Eastern Bolivia. So it's like it's situated in a big hole in the ground of the plain. As La Paz grew and grew the walls of the canyon got filled with buildings, and eventually the city spilled over onto the altiplano. This part of La Paz is called El Alto (the high one) and is basically a huge slum. We drove through it and it seemed an endless concrete jungle, it lasted for miles and miles without any change.

Now quite a few backpackers have been kidnapped in La Paz in recent months - and some of them killed - to plunder their bank cards, so this is the least safe place of my trip. Being dropped off in the poorest part wasn't so good, but I thought I'd just take a taxi down to La Paz proper. Unfortunately there was no taxi anywhere, there were just millions of microbusses driving around, and I didn't recognise any of the places they were going to. I walked around aimlessly a little and then saw a small bus headed to "Catedral". The cathedral of La Paz is in the center and I could surely find my way from there, so I jumped on that bus.

The bus ride took an hour and it seemed to get to ever worse parts of El Alto. I asked someone if it was going to the Cathedral in the *center* of La Paz, and they said yes. After almost an hour of slugging along we came to a place where there weren't even streets, just rubble and concrete buildings. I asked someone else if we were really going to the cathedral in the *center*, they said yes again. Then a bit later he pointed to a niceish church in the middle of that hellhole and said "there it is". A bit later the bus stopped and there I was, an hour's driving into the worst part of El Alto, with the sun was almost setting.

Some guy tried to help me but I didn't understand a word of his mumbled Spanish, so I just stood there looking around and worrying, but also taking some pictures while I was there anyway :). Some busses drove by occasionally - driving over rubble, I remind you - but none with any destination I knew or even going back to the place I'd started from. But then, a car appeared for the first time, a car that was at least 40 years old (I think an old-timer Volvo) and to my delight it had "Taxi" on it in faded letters. I talked to the driver, he couldn't get me to the center (I don't think this car would have made it that far either) but he could get me back to where I'd started.

On the long drive back through the slums we had a nice chat about the usual stuff. He was also pleased that I'm Belgian because in that very slum there is a Belgian padre, called Bastiaan Verhaay or something, and he was a very good padre according to my driver. I never understood his answers when I asked how I could get to the center though, but when we were finally back to my starting point he found a non-oldtimer taxi for me and this one could take me to the center. I had it drop me off at the bus station, and from there I had to walk another 20 minutes or so before I found the hostel I wanted. They only had 1 bed in a double room left that I will have to share with a chico Ingles (no not chica unfortunately), but the room would only be cleaned up an hour or two later. I was too tired to go elsewhere so I just accepted. Which is why I'm here in a cybercafe in La Paz typing my stories of the last two days :)

I haven't mentionned the worst yet, I've been feeling exhausted and ill (headache etc) since Tihuanacu, which made this whole El Alto adventure especially dreadful. It seems like AMS, which is strange since I've been above 3000m for a week now. In any case I'm in no condition to go climbing which is what I wanna do from here, so I'm gonna try to head straight to Uyuni in the south of Bolivia tomorrow and do the 4 day jeep tour, if I'm not sufficiently acclimatised after that I never will be.

Off to my hotel now, happier stories to tell next time hopefully.