La Paz: The Highest Capital City in the World

We were lucky enough to get a good bus into La Paz, and thus we were able to sleep for the majority of the overnight trip. I awoke at 6am just as we were approaching La Paz, and was met by the sight of a city unlike any I had ever seen. We were at the top of a mountain descending in to the city, which lies within a valley surrounded by mountains, some of which are snow capped. What is remarkable about this city is that it climbs high up the walls of the valley. Houses are crammed in every space possible. Entire suburbs sit precariously on badly eroded mountain faces, and look as if one torrential downpour (not an uncommon occurrence here) could wash them away. It is really quite breathtaking.
We got off the bus and booked into the closest hostel, and were rewarded by our lazyness. Upon checking in the doorman actually led us out of the hostel, took us down the street to what looked like an abandoned warehouse, he heaved open a large decaying door, and led us into what still looked like an abandoned warehouse. There was no signposting at all, but we walked up about five sets of steep and seemingly endless stairs, before entering a final door to reveal a freshly renovated and quite charismatic hostel (it is the secondary residence of the place we had booked in). Being 6.30 am we assumed we would not be able to get into our rooms until at least midday, but to our delight we were shown to our rooms and beds, and passed out immediately.
When we awoke we got down to business. We came to La Paz for pretty much one reason... To shop. It has innumerable markets, with good quality stuff for next to nothing. Over the next few days we all shopped until we were way over it. Except Ness, who bought more than Sarah and I combined, and in fact is hard to find amongst her purchases when she goes to bed at night. No Ness could probably shop indefinitely, and I fear would if we were not leaving in a day.
Other things that happened over the course of our stay in La Paz, involved me getting quite sick from either accidently drinking Bolivian water, or eating rancid Burger King. However the vommitting ceased after a day (although it was quite an intense day of vomitting), and I am now almost back to my best. We also met up with our American friends Adam and Noah again, definitely for the last time, and went on a double decker bus tour of the city with them.
The tour was good, except that it was raining and we were on the roof of the bus, even that was not so bad though. What really made us question the quality of the tour, was when the bus left literally half of the tour on the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere. We were included in that half. We were left scratching our heads wondering whether they would return for us, and as we waited two friendly police women approached us, organised us a taxi and then encouraged 8 of us to pile in to this four seater. We all crammed in as if practicing the clown car circus act, whilst these police women were smiling and nodding at us, and then began our uncomfortable journey back to the hostel. It was a funny enough experience though.
Tomorrow we begin our tour with Intrepid. We are quite intrigued as to what our group will be like, as it has the potential to make or break the tour in essence. I figure at worst we`ll be able to bond over our hatred of any particularly vile member of the tour, but it would be nice if we had a good group.
This I am sure will be revealed soon enough.
But until then...
Ta ta!