South America, Day 5: La Paz, Bolivia

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This morning I woke up feeling nauseous, I'm not sure if I ate something weird or if it's due to the new altitude tablets I'm taking, anyway I'm still feeling slightly nauseous, but it could be because now I'm in a higher altitude. Anyway I said goodbye to my awesome hotel and caught a taxi to the airport where I caught a flight to La Paz in Bolivia. I was expecting it to be a big bustling city like Lima, clearly I hadn't researched it enough as when I was landing all I could see were huts and old run down brick buildings. I took a taxi to what I thought was a hotel (actually a hostel) where I met up with Rachel and Kristy, and suddenly realised that this was a lot different to what I had imagined. This place reminds me of places like India, where everyone drives anywhere, there are people constantly trying to sell you stuff on the side of the road, and the most of the buildings are like what you see in shanty towns, it's basically just a big shanty town. There are people living in houses that are the size of my bathroom, the roads smell like urine and there are people constantly trying to sell food or beanies and clothes to help them get a little cash. I kept wondering what their health is like here in La Paz, what kind of preventable diseases they probably get, according to Wikipedia their life expectancy is only 68.2 years. Although you see this poverty, you also see them dancing in the streets, wearing beautiful coloured clothing and living the simple life, which isn't so bad sometimes. They would had little knowledge of pop culture or the latest trends in technology, but it's not that important to them. This town is rich in culture, not many people speak English or accept USA dollars unlike Lima, they are away from the outside world. Bolivia is roughly around 3,500 metres above sea level, so this is where we start feeling the effects of the altitude, I got out of breath walking up a hill that I would normally be fine at, and tried to open a window that was stuck but gave up because I had no strength. We took a gondola ride up to the top of La Paz and took some photos but unfortunately can't upload them until I'm near a computer which may end up being in 12 days time, so keep an eye out! We had an amazing dinner at a flash restaurant in a hotel we walked past, the menu was interesting, I chose to have a Llama steak which was the BEST MEAL I'VE HAD SO FAR! I will feel guilty next time I see a Llama because I think they are cute, but the chef did it justice! I also had an amazing chocolate mouse..... At a grand total of $15 US!

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Comments

[Genevieve]

Loving your blog Melissa!

[Missy]

Genevieve
Thanks Gen!

[Mum]

What a difference. Yes the people will be happy as they don't have all the trappings of materialism and technology that we have in the western culture. We can learn so much from them. I hope you feel well as you get acclimatized Rachael and Kristy too. Hope the next week goes well that you have clear weather to see the amazing views and that you have a good awesome time together. Love Mum

[marie]

You must be in El plano alto. If you go down there is a big city more like Lima. sounds like the nausea might be altitude sickness, I felt like that in la paz but not cusco. Love the blog. Watch out for TB.

[Missy]

Marie
Yeah we saw more of the city today, yeah every time someone coughs I look away, don't want to catch anything! My internet is so slow so will post tomorrow instead :)