La Paz

Sunday, we went to Tiawanacu (that is so spelled wrong), which are pre-inca ruins outside La Paz. They were interesting, but not super fabulous. they are also not completely excavated, so you climb up one point and think you´re on a hill, but you´re really ontop of a temple. some of the temples were really cool, one had heads sticking out of the walls and another had the puerta del sol (gate of the sun), which was ornately carved with a calendar. we met lots of people on our tour group and had a good time. that night we went back to the city and called Sierra´s friend - Xime (she had been an exchange student at sierra´s school). she picked us up and drove us to the nice section of la paz, which is about 1/2 hour south of the center. we went to her house, which sits on a hill overlooking the city and is three full floors. she took us to a mexican restaurant, which was yummy, but had the smallest portions i have ever seen. then we went to a bar/restaurant with one of her friends. first, we stopped at the friend´s apt building, which i swore was a hotel. the bar was full of gringos, mostly aussies and brits. they were all glued to TV screens, watching some football game. we sat at a table under one of the screens and finally figured out that they were watching the superbowl (unfortunately we missed 1/2 time and the commercials were in spanish). we didn´t stay late and the friend drove us home. both girls drive american made suvs (xime a jeep grand cherokee and her friend a dodge durrango). they wear abercrombie and speak english pretty well. they are super rich, especially for bolivia.

monday, we walked around the city a little. we went to a really pretty church in the center and some markets. one was the mercado de hechiceria (witches market), which was bizare and had animal skeletons for sale, along with other charms and herbs and stuff. we also walked through the mercado negro (black market), which was just like any other market in bolivia, aka you can buy everything there. then we took a cab to xime´s neighboorhood and went to lunch at her house. we had bland food - corn, meat, boiled potato. it was ok, dessert was great- apple compote, made from apples from the tree in the backyard. her house was a palace. i think her bathroom was the size of my family room. the room with the toilet was bigger than my parents entire bathroom. we showed her facebook and just hung out a little while. then she drove us to the valle de la luna (valley of the moon), which is about 10 km outside la paz. it was super cool. its this valley with these sand/dirt formations that look like a moonscape. we wandered around a little while, taking pictures. then we drove around looking at the mountains for a while. during the drive xime declared that total eclipse of the heart was the best song in the world (the bad dance remake version); she also announce she was going to convert to budhism, but then realized she would have to give up smoking. she dropped us off at our hostel and we went to bed.