La Paz

Em here. Writing this from La Paz, which is our fourth Bolivian city (we've been from Uyuni, to Potosi, to Sucre, to here).

Bolivia is really eye-opening and alive although a little harsh sometimes. The smog is pretty ubiquitous - we picked up some cleaned laundry in Potosi, only to find it stank of car fumes - and there's a lot of poverty here. Also, the food has played havoc with our insides.

But it's very colourful and interesting. It's one of the South American countries with the highest proportion of indigenous people, and the indigenous women wear big flounced skirts, woollen scarves, and bowler hats over long plaits.

We're staying by the witches' market which has lots of stalls selling dubious and upsetting offerings: llama fetuses, dried frogs and jaguar skins.

Today we took a taxi (scarily fast and with no seatbelts) to the 'badlands' of La Paz. These are incredible eroded structures just outside town. Some of them have names like 'El Buen Abuelo' (the good grandfather); Frank and I just stared and stared, eventually finding two shapes we thought could be kindly grandfathers and arguing about which was which.

Tomorrow there's going to be a big demonstration. The country has it's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, who most Bolivians seem to like, but protests seem to be part of the culture. We've already seen two demonstrations here and they were slow and loud (people let off fireworks as they walk), so we're doing the only sensible thing and leaving the city early in the morning for the sanctuary of Copacabana where we hope to do some trekking around the Isla del Sol.