Two Adventurers

26 December 2009 La Paz

Another bright and sunny day, time to take the dog for a walk! Paula (the dog) came  originally from Kazakhstan and is a huge sheep dog. Gert and Gaby have had her as

 

 

 

 

 

 

a puppy since their days in Tashkent and she is now 11 years old and a very lovable dog living a life of luxury. Just look at her bed! Going for a walk means we all pile into the Mitsubishi 4WD and take off up the hills at the back of their house. The two small peaks you can see in the photo below are called the ‘Devils Molars’ and we headed off in that direction. The road proved to be a very narrow dirt road which was steep and washed away every now and again leaving huge ruts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view down was amazing with very strange rock formations. Once up near the top it levelled out and there we found a small village.  Rather a hard life by all accounts as access for them would not be easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are probably more or less self sufficient by growing their own vegetables and raising their livestock. Ploughing the land is done by the traditional method using cow power. Their houses are made from mud bricks. The one on the left looks as though it has a large crack running from top to bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rock formations up there were something else and also some strange creatures could be seen prancing around!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Descending the hill, which was just as nerve wracking as going up, we took a look at a new suburb with some substantial houses. Homes here tend to take up the whole site leaving very little garden. No, we are not considering La Paz as a place to take up residence thank you – just visiting – although life here would not be all that bad and is very very inexpensive!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great number of the roads are stone paving (like cobble stones) which lends itself to a rough and noisy ride at times. It is all hand laid and very labour intensive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next port of call was another suburb south of the above which gave us a different view of La Paz with more unusual rock formations looking like something on the moon and also a glimpse of the full 18 hole La Paz Golf Course. The golf course is the green strip in the right hand photo and has the distinction of being the course at the highest elevation in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It does have another interesting factor in that being at an altitude of 10,800 feet, where the air is a little thinner, the ball will go further for the same weight of stroke than it would at sea level! How about that all of you golfers out there!

We ended the day out at a very nice German restaurant with Gaby and Gert where the food and wine was excellent.