Day 54 Lake Titikaka Hotel to La Paz

This day for me was a DOUBLE WOW day!!  We were all still concerned about Martin but had heard reports that all was better than first thought, so we left our peaceful surroundings for the hustle and bustle of the highest capital city in the world - La Paz.
However, on our way we were to call into one of the 3 SOS Villages in Bolivia.  Part of all our holiday entry fees are donated to SOS and some of the riders are also sponsored, or are collecting, for SOS as well.  The village was off the main road and in the middle of the normal tumbled down environment that you get to see every day. The village is fenced off and once through the gates it was like entering another world where110 children live in well made bungalows with solar water heating, and enough space outside to play football and enjoy the few playground features.  Each bungalow is looked after by a house Mama and each house has it's own kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and dining/lounge area.  We were shown around and the kids enjoyed showing us their rooms and everything else, including schoolwork that they had done in the local schools which most of the older ones were just returning from.  We gave then rides on our bikes and they also enjoyed climbing all over one of the trucks which sounded it's fire horn and had it's flashing lights going.  After just over an hour we left to continue to La Paz with the kids happy cheers ringing in our ears.  I had been looking forward to this day and was not dissappointed, it was the first WOW ofthe day!!
We carried on through ever increasing traffic to reach La Paz, and we finally came to a viewing point where you could again just stand and say WOW!  It is easy to look at a picture and think somewhere looks big, but standing there and looking down into an enormous hole filled with buildings is something else.  It would take us another 11K from this point to reach the bottom and get to our hotel.  This place is vast!
Finally as mentioned in Day 53's report we were all delighted to see Martin walk into the hotel looking anazingly well, with some cuts, grazes and bruises but in one piece.  Another remarkable day had come to an end.

Two new friends in their lounge

The truck gets invaded!

The vast city of La Paz in a hole behind me