First days in Bolivia!!

Hi lads! We are almost paceños by now...We arrived to Bolivia last Thursday, and since then we have been in La Paz never finding the day to leave. Well, we can just tell you positive things about our days here. You know that we are not really city guys but La Paz has something special, a fabulous setting, lively streets, strong caracter and many things to offer.
The setting of La Paz is dramatic, impressive as the city spreads around a canyon. There are countless brick houses plunging down the valley all the way down to meet the old colonial centre right at the bottom. The city itself is on 3,600 meters above sea level and has loads of dazzling peaks around, some of them towering more than 6,000m! As the city could not expand due geological reasons a new city was born around 20 years ago. El Alto, an indigenous city spreading around a flat area on the top of the valley populated mainly by Aymaras and known as the Aymara capital of the world.
Here we met up with Conor and Liz an Irish-American couple with whom we shared some moments in Chile and finally in La Paz we got a chance to enjoy more experiences and adventures with them and Bernie, an Austrian guy. We went to see a friendly football match between the two main teams of La Paz aimed to fund-raising for the victims of the Peruvian earthquake.
We visited the moon valley, yes another one friends, close to the city and full of strange rock formations and cactus like the famous San Pedro, mmmmmm.....
And we did a nice hike which took us above 5,000m for the first time! We climbed Chacaltaya a mountain not far from La Paz with an altitude of 5,400m. Our van could go all the way up to 4,800m and then had to stop as the road was all covered by snow. From there we walked to the summit, it was not really demanding, but walking at this altitude is totally different as the oxygen you breath is half which makes everything more difficult and tiring. Only the last 100m were really steep and tough but the views from the top were stunning, extremely rewarding! During the excursion we got plenty views of La Paz and many peaks around, plus a blurry glimpse of the Titicaca lake.
The rest of the days we just walked around the city, visited some museums like the Coca museum, a truly interesting one, as it gives another perspective of the coca and informs of the role it plays in the traditional societies.
We went a bit mad with the handcrafts and textiles and did some shopping, spoiled ourselves with nice dinners and enjoyed some beers, conversations and card games.
Tomorrow we should leave and head off south to the Uyuni salt flat and tour around Bolivia.
Just tell you friends that we are enjoying so much Bolivia, so far, an amazing country with an incredible culture and people.
All the best! Hey, don't be shy and leave some comments!!!