Another Month Has Passed...

Equal to my love of places whose public transportation can always find room for one more, is my love of places that house markets where twenty simple steps can put you face-to-face with potential purchases of everything from underpants to Coca leaves (oh how the American government would loath to know how often these delicious leaves are chomped up in my mouth), dishware to freshly cooked up cow intestines, and herbal remedies to hand-woven alpaca legwarmers. The multitude of legwarmers sold and sported in the streets of Bolivia desperately begs to question if this fabulous 80s fashion trend wasn´t in fact influenced by our llama-herding, Andean neighbors to the south.

I rolled into La Paz at the pitch black 6am hour to find the world´s highest capital city blanketed in snow. Snow in July is a concept completely foreign to my logical sensibilities...but with its bitter cold, came warm memories of Christmas in Northern Michigan, snowfort making, and the simple, peaceful, stillness of freshly fallen snow.

After being robbed and promptly hightailing it out of town on my previous attempt, I´m giving La Paz another go...and the crisp starkness of this morning´s sunrise, illuminating the orange-brick buildings that percariously coat the natural crater of La Paz with a chaotic layer of human development, was enough to begin melting the cold heart I had toward the city. La Paz is perhaps the only city in the world literally built inside a crater, with the peaks of Bolivias highest mountains shadowing the city in their ever snow-capped gloriousness. Other than shooting the world´s most dangerous highway tomorrow by mountain bike (a day trip outside of La Paz), and receiving my family who will arrive to visit and travel with me on Saturday, I´m now waiting with open arms to see what else this city has in store for me.