la paz

Hola! I have traveled for 24 hours straight, am exhausted, and now in a pretty nice hostel in the city of la paz in bolivia. it is 9 35 at the moment. we arrived at 5 50 after taking a red eye from miami to la paz. my first impression...it´s a city in the clouds. literally. the elevation is about 14000 feet. so in the alto region you are level if not above big puffy white clouds. other impressions...la paz is a pretty poor city. and very bare, since it´s so high. they don´t clean the streets, huge buses crawl through tiny streets, and people are going about their normal day. o and its pretty chilly. there are so many houses fitted into this bowl shaped town, and many of them are rundown buildings. the roofs are all covered in tin shingles. but the culture is great. the best thing ive seen so far are the cholitas. they are these old women who wear colorful shawls and bright full flowy skirts. but the best artical of clothing is the bowler hats they all wear. they are tall wide hats that are placed delicately on their heads. this wardrobe just speaks culture. it´s a symbol of their status here. apparently the french brought these hats over back in the day and it carried on here. they are pretty expensive, so you know if these ladies are wearing them they are pretty well off. i´m exhausted though, and i´m going to try to get some sleep before we go explore the witch markets where they sell llama fetuses and such. i just wanted to get everybody started on some reading. ill write again soon! especially because the internet here is free.