Coca Museum and the Bolivian Zoo

The Coca Museum in La Paz is a pretty cool place. It give a run down how this leave has been such a big part of not only Bolivia, but also Peru over a 1000 years. It also explained the process how to make cocaine, and how certain countries have put pressure on the Bolivian government for the eradication of this leave, even though it's the demand for the drug, not growing the leave that's the problem. Over 100 countries have access to make cocaine-derived (so they have access to tons of coca leaves for production) drugs, but these countries don't include either Bolivia or Peru. The US consumes 50% of the world's cocaine, but only has just over 5% of the world's population.
Besides this, to kill some time, Mark and I ventured to La Paz's Zoo, which is about 1/2 hour away on public transport. This was an experience in itself, 100's of buses stream down the main street, and they stop anywhere when someone wants to get on. This can create chaos on the road, with vehicles weaving in and out to stop.
The Zoo was what you can expect from a 3rd world country. People were feeding the monkeys junk food, cats were kept in little cages, the the big birds didn't have it much better. The flightless birds had it best...a big lake..no worries in the world. At least the bus ride took us past a place they call the badlands..which is similar to the badlands that I saw in the States...pretty cool funky rock formations.