Puno to La Paz, Bolivia 20 July

THURSDAY 20th Puno to La Paz, Bolivia.

Lindsey had a bad night. Her altitude sickness isn't great.  She is worrying that we still have another six or seven of the next ten days at above 3500m.

We beat the 5:30 alarm by getting up at 5:15.

Packed and went down to reception where the Internet is better.

Breakfast began at 6:00 and we left in our mini bus for the main bus station at 6:30.

The bus was on time and we filled the lake edge for two hours to reach the border town of Desaguadero.

We got off the bus and our Peruvian guide introduced us to our Bolivian guide.  Her name is Marisol.

We said our goodbyes to Luis and then received instructions from Marisol.

We had been joking with Luis that he would be catching the "chicken" bus back to Cusco but it appears because of continuing disruptions from the teachers that he couldn't even do that.  His latest arrangements were to catch a contraband truck via a back road to avoid the disruptions.

We found the customs arrangements at Desaguadero hilarious.  The bus dropped us off and we queued on the footpath for about half an hour and then walked into a building where two officials were on duty.  Showed our passport which was stamped with an exit stamp and then we walked out an adjacent door back onto the same footpath.  Our guide had been waiting outside for us.  Then as a group we walked 200m over a bridge and queued up for 45 minutes this time on another footpath.

While waiting it was no problem to pop across the road to a toilet or to do a bit of Bolivian shopping.  Finally we got to enter the building that we were queuing for where two more officials were on duty.  This time we got to hand over a declaration saying that we had nothing to declare and had our passports stamped again

Two hours later we were able to reclaim our seats on our bus and continue to La Paz.

La Paz has a population of about one million, however there is an adjacent city called El Alto that has a similar population and appears to be the dormitory for the less wealthy who work in La Paz.

Three hours after leaving the border we arrived at the La Paz bus station.

Our first impression is that La Paz makes Wellington look flat.  The city is in a hilly valley with houses clinging to every part of every hillside.  The drop from El Alto, which is on the flat at over 4200m, to La Paz is about 600m.

We boarded a transfer bus to our hotel and then discovered how chaotic La Paz traffic is.  Bumper to bumper with nobody prepared to give way and "Hiace buses" just stop anywhere to pick up and drop off, but somehow it works.

Checked in at a little before 4pm to be given an internal shoebox of a room which we were later to discover was also freezing.  The hotel doesn't have any heating.

Twenty minutes later the group met for an orientation walk of central La Paz.

We walked down a steep street full of touristy shops to a plaza then across the valley and up a less steep street to a pedestrian only street.  As we hadn't had any lunch our guide took us to an empanada shop where Lindsey and I had a beef empanada to stop the tummy rumbling.  We then continued to Murillo plaza to see the parliament building on one side, the presidents officers on another and surely there was a Catholic Church on a third side but I cannot remember.

We walked back down to the valley and were shown the main market and then walked up towards our hotel and visited a part of the "witches" market.  Any herbal remedy is available that you could imagine and plenty one wouldn't be 

able to imagine.  Many shops had Llama foetuses hanging at their doorways.

We returned to the hotel briefly and then went to dinner as a group. This would be the last night for seven of our group.  The Canadian Russians head back to Toronto tomorrow. The two 60 yr old nurses head to Santiago for four days before going home to Sydney and the two Brisbane teachers are off to the Iguasio falls and then to Rio.  One then goes home to Queensland while the other goes to Colombia to meet up with her daughter.

Dinner was good. I had a llama steak.  It was delicious. It was the size of my plate but very thin and tasted like veal.  Lindsey had a chicken curry which she enjoyed.

Hugs and farewells after dinner and we were in bed with all our clothes on by 10pm.