La Paz - Day 4 and the 10 Hour Bus Trip to Uyuni

Monday 21st April

As we had planned to go mtbing on Sunday we had arranged our bus ticket to Uyuni for Monday night, so we had a spare day in La Paz. We visited the AeroSur office to try and rearrange our flights so we could come back to La Paz at the weekend to do the mtbing trip, but it was going to cost US$400, so we decided that was a bit too much Money, and the time schedule was really tight – so we were both pretty bummed that we aren´t going to get to do the Death Road L

However, we did finally manage to visit some Museums. We visited the Archaeological Museum which was very interesting and had a good display of pre-Incan ceramics from the islands in Lake Titicaca – which interestingly showed some Asian influence. We also visited the Museum of the Church of San Francisco which was very cool, as we got to see all parts of the church including the choir stalls, and even got to clima the tower to see the view from the roof. We also got to see the cloisters, where there are many religous paintings and some displays of how the monks lived their daily lives (including wine and pisco sour making). We also visited the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore which had an interesting display of textiles from all over the region from various eras. There was also a very cool display of carnaval headresses and costumes, from the last 100 years – they were so elaborate and detailed, quite amazing. Next was a display of headresses and costumes entirely made out of bird feathers. Again, they were very detailed and some of the headresses were HUGE, but I hate to think how many birds were killed to make them all. They also had another good exhibition of ceramics from the different cultures in the region, from ancient history until colonial times.

And of course we had the obligatory coffee and cake at Alexander´s during the day as well.

We met Anna and Dave at Yusseff´s for our Last Supper. It has been so cool to catch up with them, and yet weird too cos we aren´t in NZ. We have spent loads of time with them while we have been here, and they have been fab, taking us lots of cool places and especially knowing the best places to get great food! It was so good to see some familiar faces at this point of our trip, and can´t wait to see them again when they come home.

After dinner we had to go collect our bags from ABH and then match the 9pm bus to Uyuni (10 hrs – oh joy!). We went with a company called Todo Turismo, and they were really good - highly recommended.

Photos:
1) Pottery artifact.
2) A Mummy - burial techniques of the Incan, and pre-Incan cultures resulted in well preserved mummies, and they're quite common in museums throughout South America.
3) A skull - well born people had their skull shape modified by fixing boards to the head from a young age. Such a skull shape was a sign of status.