Ciao!

it's pretty! What's the weather like over there?

The weather's odd. You need sweaters year-round at night. But in the summer, the daytime can be rather nice -- as long as you're in the sun. The temperature drops significantly in the shade. Even in cold cold days, you can get quite sunburned (at that altitude you're much closer to the sun). But, overall, it's rather pleasant.

Is that fucking city sprawled out up to the base of the mountain or cobbles?!? It's gigantic! What the fuck?!? Where the hell is that? Freaky.

Love,
Micah

Yeah, the city sprawls up and over the mountains. It's actually two cities: La Paz and El Alto ("The Heights"). La Paz has about a million people, and El Alto has about 700,000 or so. La Paz starts in a small valley and starts crawling up the Andes and along into other little valleys. So the city's broken up into boroughs like Sopocachi, San Miguel, etc. Over the lip of the mountains around La Paz, where the Altiplano breaks out, that's where El Alto starts. So. La Paz is all ups and downs (like San Francisco, but at much higher altitude, mostly between 2.2 and 2.5 miles). El Alto is pretty much all flat, but at a pretty steady 2.7 miles above sea-level). If you travel w/in the city fast enough, your ears pop going up and down at that altitude.

i really want to get over there for Christmas this year. Keeping my fingers crossed.... Your place sounds like it will be awesome!

Yeah, I think my place is in the lower Prado, which melts into Sopocachi. That's where all the best restaurants, cafés, clubs, and other swanky places are. Not to mention most embassies and other cultural-political spots. Oh, yeah! It's gonna be "la dulce vita".