Chilin' with the Alpaca feelin'

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Day 32-7th October

We woke up not particularly early had showers and stuff, I stayed up last night and spoke to Tom about the many ways the world is going to end and society will fall, most of which are apparently linked to the new world order. I like the odd conspiracy theory now and then but I do worry sometimes when I talk to people that will believe anything they see on youtube, I believe in taking what the government feed us through Media with a pinch of salt but I also believe that to be true of the David Ike’s of the world a little bit of good observation can get blown out of all proportion and then the next thing you know the world is run by lizards... anyway although I fear a little misguided Tom was actually a nice bloke with good intentions and yes very easy to wind up.

We met with Clair just outside our room as she was waiting for a Cab to take her to the Airport, poor Girl she seemed like she was putting on a brave face but we could tell she was pretty gutted about her knee and obviously in considerable pain, she introduced us to her friend Johnny who was going to escort her to the airport and we agreed to find a nightclub with him and his girlfriend we’d been recommended later on that night. When Jonny and Clair left for the Airport (good luck with those bloody planes!) Liz and I got our stuff together and headed out for a bit of a wander and to see if we could find the Market.

Although it is actually only a couple of hundred yards from the Hostel it seemed like miles away probably due to a combination of the altitude making everything seem like 10 times more effort and the fact that we’d heard some horror stories about Bolivia (La Paz and Lima in particular) whereby there are scams where people spill or spit something on you and pick your pockets as they wipe it off or straight up robberies at knife or gun point so in such a crowded place I was trying my best to really pull all my streetsmart resources together and ensure we didn’t walk into anything too dodgy or lose anything from our pockets, luckily avoiding robberies is something I am used to so my hand was in the pocket of money, my eyes were on all males between the ages of around 14 and 40 and I ensured that I was sufficiently puffed up, moody looking and tattoos were on show and of course if any middle aged ladies spat on us we were fully prepared to give the middle finger and not stop for them or anyone else to pick our pockets. With all that in mind I actually found the market to be friendly enough with plenty going on, lots of smiling people and the residents of La Paz to be very welcoming of us gringos.

We went into a section of the indoor market and boy oh boy is it woolly heaven! We took our time to wander round and look at all the wares on offer, these stalls were mostly run by women many of whom had their small children with them running around playing or getting brain freeze from too much ice cream ducking between all the travellers like us shopping for tat it was a nice atmosphere and I felt able to let my guard down and became engrossed in all the stuff on offer, Liz and I went into one bit at the back and found a lady selling blankets, Liz has been looking out for these brightly coloured hand woven blankets since we got to south America and finally we found some at a non extortionate price, we also found a brilliant outfit for Jason and Phillipa’s new arrival who should be popping his or her head out very soon! So we have a few things to send back to the UK now and I don’t doubt by the time we leave Bolivia we’ll have more.

We stuffed what we had just bought into my backpack and attempted to find a cashpoint as we are going to do the salt flats and machu pichu which are supposed to be cold and with all that wool on offer we had to go back and get with the fashion, we wandered for about 15mins and were getting nowhere so sat down and tried to find one on the map provided by the hostel... nope no joy. I asked one of the Policemen on the roadside “Habla English?” an uneasy shake of the head and the reply No English “Por Favor, Donde est cashpoint?” blank stare... “eeerr Money por favor?” another slight shake of the head probably thinking im asking him for money “Banco de cash?” Aaaaah he said cashpoint! Up the road and on the left we established from his gestures so I finished my fag and off we headed, the cashpoint was only a few yards along but pretty well hidden, we took out all we could and headed straight back to the indoor market.

Liz and I both bought hats and a woolly jumper each, mine of course is a zip up hoodie being from London and all, and I also got some gloves as I failed to bring any with me. I suspect we will return for more, in total we spent about 60 quid on what we would have paid 200 quid o more on back home.
Once we were all shopped out we headed back to the hostel... uphill... slowly... and got out all our stuff and began taking silly pictures of ourselves wearing our new outfits, we went back to the bar and got some drinks and played pool, Liz is beginning to enjoy this simple game involving pointy sticks, felt tables and heavy balls and has not stopped reminding me that she actually beat me that night... I blame the altitude and the fact I’m a bit crap however if she gets good enough we can hustle people on our travels.

We met Johnny and his girlfriend once he returned from taking Clare to the airport and had a couple of drinks before heading out to the nightclub, once suitably lubricated we went out and got a cab, apparently all cabbies in La Paz know of the place but instead we ended up on a two hour runnaround, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the bar at the hostel, after two more drinks Johhny and Clarissa had an early night and Liz and I stayed up for a bit chatting, someone overheard us talking about the elusive club and said that they were just heading there and they had the actual address did we want to tag along? Well what the hay we thought... may as well, we got in another cab and went straight there. It was playing Music I like “Dubstep mostly” and we completely lost track of time we all ended up leaving at 07:00 rather plastered, got back to the Hostel with no problems and went to bed feeling a little worse for wear.

Love Ellz xxx

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