It´s a jungle out there

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Nearing the end of our bus journey to La Paz, I woke at 5am to find the bus in the middle of the desert - no roads, no other traffic, nothing. I was convinced we were going to be boarded by bandits. After a while, someone explained to me what was going on - the road to La Paz had been blocked by protesters, and the bus had been trying to find a way around the blockade. It had proved unsuccessful, and the options were to 1) wait on the bus for an unspecified amount of time, or 2) walk aorund the blockade and pick up a taxi on the other side. All the locals seemed to be choosing the latter and so we joined them. 15 minutes later we came across a small group of women sitting on a pile of stones in the middle of the road - nothing too threatening. However, none of the taxis on the other side were picking up tourists and so we continued walking. The reason for this became apparent 45 minutes later when we came across another blockade. We walked for a further 2 hours, with all of our luggage, through about 3 more, each bigger than the last. This had clearly been thought through. By this stage, we were in a group of 8, and eventually found a minibus driver willing to compromise his principles for 200Bs and drive us to La Paz via the back roads. After driving us into the middle of nowhere, he stopped, announced we were now 80km away from La Paz and asked for more money. We asked to be taken back to where he had picked us up. He claimed this was impossible. After some back-and-forth he suddenly started driving. 30 minutes later w crested a hill to find La Paz laid out in the bowl of the mountain, sunlight glinting off the skyscrapers. It was a beautiful sight. Arriving at Adventure Brew Hostel, I gorged myself on the leftover pancake breakfast and went to bed.

I knew immediately that I preferred La Paz to Buenos Aires. It felt more like a real city, complete with markets selling everything (not just tourist tat, although i bought a lot of that!), street food, and zebras on the zebra crossings. Really. Sorry guys, you´ll have to wait for the photos again. On my second night there I went to the bar for my free beer (best hostel in the world) and didn´t get home til 5am - a wonderful night where I met lots of fantastic people and ran amok in Ramjam, Vivien´s and Club 484. This set the tone for the city, and I broke my previous (Bangkok) record for amount of time without sleep over a fantastic weekend - starting at sunset on Friday night with books, bikinis and beer and ending at sunrise on Sunday with blankets, bikinis and beer - both events watched from the roof garden with its panoramic views over La Paz. There was even some hot tub action on Saturday night. (best hostel in the world)

On Monday, we flew to Rurrenebaque - 24 hours on the bus for $20 or 45 minutes by plane for $60 - very little contest. We arrived in the evening and booked a 3-day pampas tour for the next morning. Being in the jungle was something I was really looking forward to and there were some amazing highlights - swimming with dolphins, a fantastic night excursion and getting extremely close to monkeys and alligators. However, for me, the trip was let down by the poor english and apparent uninterest of the guide, the sheer number of people on the river (our trek through the pampas on day 2 saw about 60 people crashing through the undergrowth and catcalling to each other. I was amazed when an anaconda was actually found, although wished that it hadn´t been when it was passed around everyone to be held) and the mosquitos. I won´t dwell on the mosquitos, except to say that despite my long clothes and 50% deet, I got bitten repeatedly in a variety of weird and wonderful places, the only one mentionable here without raising the guidance rating of this blog being the sole of my foot (how?).

After a fruitless 2 hours fishing for piranhas on day 3, we returned to the town. I left Margrethe to complete a jungle trek, and flew back to La Paz (decadence I know) for another wild weekend, culminating in an early Halloweén party on Saturday night, from which we returned on Sunday morning, lit a quite incredible fire (if I do say so myself) and finished off my bottle of vodka. Best city in the world.

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