La Paz

November 22-25 & 27-30, 2007

We were both really looking forward to our time in La Paz. It is another place where Davo was visiting for the second time and Fi for the first.

We broke up our time in La Paz by riding bikes down the worlds most dangerous road to Coroico where we stayed for a couple of nights (see the next blog).

The fact that we were spending time in La Paz toward the end of our trip was not a coincidence. It was planned because we knew we`d be spending a lot of time and money buying lots of souvenirs and Christmas pressies made of alpaca fleece. Everything in Bolivia is very cheap (as long as it´s not imported). It´s good not to be American at the moment and it´s even better to be spending pound rather than Australian dollars, but the pounds are running low :(

Without giving too much away about Christmas presents I´ll give you a bit of an idea of the things we bought. DVDs are hot property and for only 50p ($1.25) each they were hard to ignore. We came away with about seventy!

Big, warm, fleecy alpaca jumpers - for about 50Bs each. That´s just over 3 quid or $7. Beanies and gloves were 20Bs a pop, not much more than a pound! Of course we bargained for everything too which is expected by the locals. You walk into a store, hold up an item and ask ¨¿quanto cuesta?¨ (how much?) wait five seconds, ask again and the original price has been lowered to the ´actual´ price. We had some fun bargaining over 5Bs. It´s the principle!

Some friends at our hostel had just had some prescription glasses made very cheaply. We went investigating and came away with a new pair of specs and a pair of prescription sunnies for about AU$75! Quote me if we´re wrong but that probably would have cost somewhere over $3- or $400 at home?

Speaking of our hostel, it was a gem. It had recently opened about a month ago and the beds were incredible. Big, soft mattresses, warm, proper doonas, good pillows and spacious dorms. It also had proper hot showers. Because it had recently opened, they also had a deal going for a free night if you stayed long enough. It´s called Wild Rover Backpackers for anyone going to La Paz.

We ran into a good mate of Davo´s from high school, Johnno Doolan. We learnt that we were in La Paz together via facebook and then tried to arrange to meet up. Before we could organise anything, we ended up in the same dorm together! Classic!

We went out for some traditional food, dance and music one night which was nice. We all ate llama, Fi was pulled up on stage at every opportunity to dance because she is a hottie (and she was the only girl on our table), Dools tried to bring out the sprinkler dance move and we got a complimentary bottle of wine from a drunk Swedish bloke sitting on his own. Great night!

What is the capital city of Bolivia? Interesting question at the moment. Most people in the world would probably say La Paz, because that´s the city that has the big star on the map. It´s also where parliament sits. But the constitutional capital is actually Sucre and if you ask anyone who knows stuff, Sucre is the correct answer. But right now it is a hot topic in Bolivia. We met travellers who had fled Sucre because riots broke out between savilians and police. Tear gas was being used, the police station was burnt down, tyres were burning in the streets, riot police were everywhere.

Fortunately for us there were no such riots in La Paz during our time there. We did witness some peaceful demonstrations with strong police presence but only once felt threatened ourselves. When a band played the national anthem and we were walking down the street. A grumpy old man put his hand up signalling us to stop, with a nasty frown on his face. We looked around and everyone was still. We were the only people walking. So we stopped! Apparently that´s what you do when they play the national anthem in Bolivia! Many locals hope the dispute can be solved peacefully but some are already predicting a civil war is imminent within the next twelve months.

Persistent diarrhoea and intermittent stomach cramps are almost a given while visiting Bolivia. We´re doing our best to talk up this place! We love Bolivia, seriously! The stomach problems probably could have been avoided if we ate less salad and drunk less watered down orange juice. But hey, it´s all part of the experience! We avoided any serious problems due to altitude, but were still puffed after climbing into bed on the top bunk. The mate de coca probably helped (tea made from the leaf of the coca plant, same plant used to make cocaine). We didn´t get into chewing the coca leaves like all the locals though.

Speaking of coca, the coca museum was very informative. It´s aim is to educate in a safe and controlled way rather than having intrigued kids try and learn about coca by consuming it.

Other museums that got our attention were the ´hands on´ musical instrument museum (a new boy band was nearly formed featuring Davo, Johnno and Johnno´s friend Matt) and the national museum of art (crap except for a few items, in our opinion).

La Paz is a brilliant city and we´d be back to visit in a flash.