January 1 – First day in La Paz!

Our first day in La Paz was pretty low key. After we checked into our hotel, we were all in various states of sleep depravity so we napped a bit and walked around the city a bit.

Maddy took the girls out in the morning, and took a ride up the teleferico – basically a gondola system that goes from the lower part of the city of La Paz to the higher part up the mountain. Julie was a bit nervous at first but they all loved it! At the top was a neat open-air market, with lots of families and stalls selling everything from underwear to car parts. Kids were most excited about the food. We tried a lot of new and some familiar snacks – dried corn, banana chips, chicken and rice in a bag, watermelon, grapes, and ice cream. I love street food! Also had some good conversations with locals where I got to practice my crappy-but-rapidly-improving Spanish.

Pictures include Christmas trees made from tires & water bottles, shots on the teleferico, view from teleferico, obligatory baby llama shot #1, remains of the street food, and the girls with ice cream in the market.

Later in the afternoon Mike took Caroline and Julie out while Maddy and Mimi napped. They had fun exploring some streets near our hotel.