La Paz

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Hola mis amigos!

Muchas gracias for continuing to check out my blog, greatly appreciated!

So, La Paz. My first impression of the city was from the window of a bus through a sick person´s haze! But it seemed like an absolutely massive city. As stated before in my previous blog, I was too ill to do anything on the day we arrived other than watch The American Office (not as good as the British original I have to say), drink Gatorade and lie curled up in the foetal position!

But the following day (Sunday) I was feeling a bit better, managed to eat some breakfast and went for a little walk down the road. I didn´t get too far, seeing as I hadn´t eaten anything for 2 days other than the banana I had that morning, but from that very superficial impression, it seemed like lots of market stalls, lots of dead dried llamas, and so many people! I started feeling funny again so headed back to the hotel to have a nap and woke up that night to join the rest of the group for our last dinner together! It had been an amazing tour, lovely people and a great guide in the form of Ash, who I am still in contact with. We went to a really nice place called Mongo´s (if you ever find yourself in La Paz!) and I managed to have some pasta so was definitely on the mend.

The following morning we said our goodbyes and went out separate ways (Niall headed to Colombia, branding Bolivia ´devil country´ as he got sick so much here! James and Susie were off to New Zealand, Susan was hanging around in La Paz for a few days, and John was flying back to the UK, keen to get back to his wife and his bike). I was planning on heading straight back to Sucre that day, so went to the bus station to buy my ticket. All good, very cheap for a nice bus (hopefully minus the bugs this time!) and I went for a wander round La Paz. Luckily for me, I bumped into Ash, who told me I needed to change my ticket for two days time as there was a bus strike from midnight that night until midnight on Tuesday, so no buses would be running in Bolivia. Nice of the bus company to mention that huh?! No, they continue to sell tickets to make money, then you will turn up and either there will be no bus, or the bus will run until wherever it is at midnight, then stop, or keep driving to get as near to the destination as possible, but normally there are road blockades so you can get chucked off the bus two days walk away from Sucre in the middle of nowhere! Clearly, I did not want to be involved in any of these situations, so I went back to the bus station and the nice lady there changed my ticket for two days time when the buses would be running again! I found out last week that actually the bus strike got called off, but in a way it was probably a good thing, enabling me to see a bit more of La Paz.

Do you know what the bus strike was about? The drivers were striking because there were talks going on about taking away their licenses if they got caught drink-driving! Bear in mind, these buses carry between forty and sixty people along muddy hillside roads! Only in Bolivia...

Faced with another two nights in La Paz, I had to find somewhere to stay, but could not be bothered moving too far from my hotel as I was still feeling a bit weak from my tummy bug. I settled for a hostel called ´Palacio de los Incas´ (Palace of the Incas). Sounds nice? Nope! I made the mistake of not looking at the rooms! She told me ´a fiver a night for your own double room with cable TV and breakfast included´ (in Spanish, clearly. Without using the term ´fiver´). Naturally I booked two nights straight away! Headed up there and it was pretty dirty. The thing that freaked me out the most was the weird dirty hand-mark on the wall. It looked like someone had rubbed their hand across the TV screen (about a thousand layers of dust on it) then smeared their hand across the wall next to the bed. Then I noticed a flea on my foot while sat on the bed. But I really couldn´t be bothered moving again so I settled down to watch a movie on HBO, fleas or no fleas!

The following couple of days I explored La Paz a bit more, fairly breathlessly due to the combination of altitude and hills! There are a couple of good museums and lots of markets and although I wouldn´t rate it as one of my top cities, it was ok to spend a couple of days there. I was quite happy to be heading back to Sucre, though, and for once, I had a decent bus journey! Other than the Bolivian man I was sat next to who kept trying to put his blanket over me. I kept saying, no, I´m not cold, the heating is on and that sign is telling us it is 32 degrees on here! Still, he insisted that the window seat I had must be really cold. I had to be very pushy (not something that come naturally to me!) and refuse the shared blanket, then pretend to be asleep because he was staring at me. And the bus was four hours late arriving in Sucre. Apart from that, it´s been the best Bolivian bus journey so far!

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