La Paz

La Paz seems to be one huge market
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DAY 31 - 3 JANUARY 2008

Got up early yet again - sucks.  We packed up our bags and headed to the bus stop and there are two buses for La Paz.  The bus company girlie finally showed up and we demanded to get on the bus to La Paz, she joined the melee to buy 10 tickets for our group (in reality she needed 12), but we soon loaded our bags and jumped on the bus, nothing was getting us off.  Anyway two of the group didn´t have seats (theres a surprise) but they were allowed to stand or sit in the aisle for the trip, although as luck would have it, 2 people had cushions with them, so they sat on those.  The journey progressed smoothly.

Fantastic

The view from our hotel room window. Notice how close the snow is to us.
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We had to get off the bus at one point, where we transferred to a ferry and our bus (and luggage) boarded a barge, but all went well and we were reunited with our bus and luggage on the other side.

We continued the journey to La Paz on deteriorating roads and many checkpoints.  Everything is so grey and impoverished, there is nothing that even gives you any hope.  This is the most depressing area we have been through.  Even the roads are disintegrating.

We finally saw how big La Paz was when we started the downhill drive to the city.  The whole valley from top to bottom is just covered in housing, even the vertical surfaces.  The clouds are in the middle of the valley, so you can see parts of the city above and below which is a weird feeling.

The street our hotel is on - everything in South America is up.
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We all disembarked the bus and got our luggage to be greeted by a contingent of tourist police, giving us tips on how to use taxis etc, although the taxi drivers seemed to be giving them some sort of payment, so not exactly whose benefit this was for.  We then shared a taxi with a couple who are living in Sydney, but can speak fluent Spanish.

We headed to Plaza San Francisco and walked around checking out some hotels, before checking into Hostal Maya Inn, which is small but clean and most importantly, the receptionist speaks English.  We agreed to meet Clara and Tony downstairs (after dropping off our laundry) and head out to lunch, where we found what can only be described as an old fashioned dining room and had the set menu.

The Catedral
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We then walked to the LAN Office and have booked tickets to Iquique in Chile for Sunday.  We continued walking and found a huge street market selling produce, so we had a good wander around while Tony and Clara topped up on sandwich making supplies.  We left them and headed off to find vino tinto and papas fritas which we did for 46 Bolivianos, eventually winding our way back to the hotel for a glass of the aforementioned vino tinto which is actually not bad.

We got organised and headed out to dinner at a restaurant called Youssef which is middle eastern and had cous cous followed by an early night watching English TV.

More markets
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DAY 32 - 4 JANUARY 2008

We  both had a good nights sleep - the first since arriving here in South America.  We left the hotel and had a leisurely start to the day with a continental breakfast.

Our first stop is the bank to top up cash supplies.  The ATM wouldn't take my card so I had to venture inside and had to go through a few people to finally get what I wanted which involved a lot of hand signals.  Finally after leaving the bank we went and checked in for our flight at the LAN office.

There is no escaping the shoeshine boys
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We walked back up to the Cathedral and sat through two masses (we didn't realise that the priest had finished).  It is actually a lovely church, nothing garish or over the top like the other cathedrals we had been too so far.  The second mass was a service for two soldiers so there were lots of army there.

We had a wander through the Plaza which was nice except for the millions of pigeons being fed by kids.  Every street seems to be an open air market, you name it, you can buy it, all very cheap.  We found a restaurant for lunch where SB had the set menu and I had a salad.

We then went back to a street side stall where Scott got the latest copy of Matlab and Photoshop for about $9.  We found another stall where he bought 5 dice (something he has been wanting since on board Commitment).  We went back to pick up our laundry and check some info.

DAY 33 - 5 JANUARY 2008

I woke up with a sore throat and cold, kindly passed on by Scott.  During breakfast Scott found out that the buses were again on strike which leaves a lot of people stuck here in Bolivia, apparently this happens a lot, so glad we are flying.

The weather has turned and it is raining, but we persevered and walked to Plaza San Francisco, but the church wasn´t open.  We walked up towards Mercado de Hechiceria (witches market) which had some very weird looking remedies, but I am definitely not sick enough to start taking any of them.  We continued walking up to Mercado Negro which was just streets and streets of market stalls, I think they were selling everything imaginable.  I wasn´t feeling too flash and we headed back to the vicinity of the hotel and had lunch before I went back and crashed.

We didn't venture back out into the cold as the weather here is wet and freezing and there aren't that many people walking around at night here anyway.