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Published: December 31st 2010
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About two hours after posting the last blog by some act of gross stupidity I managed to fall over the slightly raised forks of a fork lift truck. One minute I'm wandering through San Pedro town square the next I'm flat on my face with my left leg in a lot of pain. Next thing a large coloured gentleman was picking me up and plonking me on a park bench. It was quite a spectacular fall so I'd gathered a small crowd to watch me roll up my trouser leg to reveal a big chunk missing out of my shin. I found the missing bit in my sock but it looked too battered to stick back on. I could see something white in there that I've a feeling was bone but anyway that was all a week or more ago and leg is now all back to working order albeit with a dirty great big scab.
Moved North up to the beach resort of Iquique for Christmas which was OK. Had a fairly quite time for a few days before moving North again for a one night stopover in Arica before getting the morning bus across the Bolivian border and
on to La Paz.
All was going well until about 5 miles from the centre of La Paz when our bus, along with lots of others, got stopped at a road block. I had no idea what was going on but it turns out that the government has removed the subsidy on fuel which has got the backs up of the locals to the point that all the transport workers are out on strike. As well as going on strike their blocking all the major roads into the city's. During the next hour, we sat around wondering what to do, the Army turned up, it got dark, the protesters set fire to some tyres and it became obvious we were going nowhere.
By now there was only the driver, conductor, two women and me left on the bus. One of the women had taken to doing lots of crying which was a bit over the top as it hadn't got to the looting and pillaging stage yet. But, to her credit, in between crying she did get hold of her boyfriend who in turn managed to rustle up a car which he drove the wrong way up
the duel carriageway to get within about half a mile of us. Then it was out with the gear and a quick walk round burning barricades and disaffected transport workers and off to the car. Bit of a bloody nightmare really but all turned out well in the end.
La Paz sits at nearly 4000mts and you really notice the altitude. I had a headache for the first 24 hours and anything that takes the slightest effort leaves you panting for breath. The hotel has Coca tea on tap which is meant to help so I've been giving that a go and it does seem to have got rid of the headache but still have to walk everywhere very slowly. Went off to a museum and the San Francisco church today. Climbed the bell tower off the church which was a mistake took me ten minutes to get my breath back for the walk back down.
Only been here for a day and a bit but really like the place. It seems much more how you might imagine South America to be than Chile was. It has a much higher percentage of indigenous people than other places with
many of the women still wearing traditional dress which adds a bit of colour to the street.
It's also a fair bit cheaper here than Chile, I've just had home made mushroom soup with garlic bread, Llama steak (very nice), bananas and rum and a glass of freshly squeezed guava juice all for £3.75 Bargain!!
One advantage of the strike is that there's hardly any traffic so its making walking about the place much nicer than it might normally be. The down side is that I'm now stuck in La Paz until its over. Thats fine if it only lasts another couple of days or so but if it goes on much longer then it puts my plans of heading off to the salt flats, doing an Amazon trek and going to lake titicaca in the poo. If it does look like its going on for a while I might have to fly out to Peru and go to Titicaca from there. Anyway no point worrying about it as there's nothing I can do about it.
So will write again in a week or so either from here or Peru.
Hope you all have a great
New Year.
PS Tried to add more photos but internet is playing up so will put them in next time.
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