Saturday, September 17, 2011

A Day with Mariana and Family in La Paz

Mariana picked me up from my hostel and we made a plan to take the double-decker city tour bus out to Luna Valle, so named due to the likeness to lunar landscape.

But first, we ran up the street and grabbed a special treat called Saltinas.  They are a pastry filled with a meat mixture.  Delicious.

This is Mariana in the foreground.

Then we ran to get to Plaza Isabel la Catalica in time to catch the tour bus.

A shot from the bus as we head south out of the city.

The cliffs in the area are sand.

Here is Mariana as we enter the valley.

They say that every time it rains the valley changes as sand is washed away and new formations are created.

It was beautiful and considered to be a sacred site to the locals.

You can see houses built on the top of the ridge.  This is not always a good plan as the rains can cause slides causing the houses to fall.  Shortage of available land for houses is an issue.

One type of cactus found here.


There were narrow pathways we walked on between the peaks which looked quite prone to being removed by a hard rain.

This hole goes down quite a way and it is the route by which the rain water leaves taking huge amounts of sand with it.

Another view, another cactus.

After the tour Mariana took me home for lunch with her family.

After lunch Mariana and husband Miguel drove me around to see places of interest in the city.

Here we are on a lookout hill where we see an old gate at the entrance.

Miguel bought a bag of sweetened popped corn from this woman.  She was crying because we were her first sale of the day, but there wern't very many people out on the hill.  It tasted like sugar pops.

A view down the hill from a window in a stone column.


A view looking south down the hill.


Miguel and Mariana.


After they droped me off I walked over the overpass to the shopping street near my place.  Looking down on the beautiful boulevard.
I found a Copacobana Chicken place to have supper.  Mariana is right it is at least as good as KFC.

Tomorrow I am taking a day off and hopefully I will get some progress on catching up lost time blogging.

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