Adventures of the Pratts

Wow, there is so much Carbohydrate here. Breakfast is a cereal that contains oats, quinoa, corn and some dried fruit. Lunch is usually a set meal (almuerzo) that comes with soup and a main course. Yesterday we had a soup that had pasta and potatoes in it. The main course had more potatoes, yucca and rice. Evening meal last night had rice and chips! That is alot of carbohydrate.

In addition to this we are amazed by the variety of cakes, pastries and ice cream. The residents of La Paz love their ice cream. Today Chris and I suffered, and joined them in eating a large bowl of ice cream with chopped up chocolate, peaches and topped with Dulce de Leche sauce. All in the name of cultural experience of course!

Being a Sunday most things were shut today, so we took ourselves for a gentle stroll (still not able to manage much more then a grandma paced walk due to the altitude). First we came across some kind of street "event" on the main Prado. La Paz is built in a canyon created by the Choqueyapu River. The city's main thoroughfare, which roughly follows the river, changes names over its length, but the central tree-lined section running through the downtown core is called the Prado and Chris and I refer to the whole throughfare as the Prado because we are too lazy to learn all the names. Along the Prado there were stalls with art, food, child games, but we are not sure what the cause was. It seemed to have a political vein.

After strolling through this we walked further up the Prado to the La Plaza de los Españoles, which is known today as the Plaza Murillo. Juan Gutierrez set this area out in 1600. There was some Military event going on with bands, soldiers and one very long speech that we didn`t understand. After the speech everyone sung what we think is the national anthem and they raised the Bolivian flag. It was an amazing experience.

As I mentioned La Paz in built in a canyon and the main throughfare follows the river. Off this main throughfare it is very steep, climbing up the canyon. Being 3640m (11942ft) above sea level the air is very thin. This makes alot of the climbing up anaerobic, so Chris and I are suffering from lactic acid build up in our muscles which is leading to cramps and sore muscles. It is all very pathetic and quite humbling really.

Tomorrow we leave our little bubble of luxury and join the Dragoman tour, the main part of our Honeymoon. This section is 6.5 weeks and will take us through Bolivia, Chile, Argentina to Brazil. For more information look here http://www.dragoman.com/destinations/tripdetails.php?cat=wzi

Think that is it for now. Off for some more Carbohydrates now.