– After weighing the options for leaving Uyuni, we finally decided the overnight train for 7 hours and then connecting to a 3 hour local bus was best. It ended up being quite a night. Since the train left at 1:45am, we decided to get a cheap hotel room by the train station to hang out in until the train left. Most travelers hang at bars all night, but this was too long for us and the $9 we spent for the room was well worth it! Too bad the train was freezing cold. I was prepared and wore all my thermals, wool hat and gloves so I was warm, but Colin is always hot so he didn´t dress in layers and was so cold all night. The train attendant gave him a blanket and he almost turned it down, but took it and was glad he did as it kept him a littler warmer.
– We finally arrived in La Paz after the 3 hour bus ride, when we were so tired, but couldn´t sleep as a little girl sitting next to us was yelling the whole ride (while her dad slept soundly). Oh well, the fun of travels I guess.
– La Paz is very high in terms of altitude and we felt it with every step we took. We would walk 5 steps uphill, and would have to stop to breath as it was hard to move. This made us so tired and really sleepy. I think I took a nap every day in La Paz and it was nice! After this long journey and out nap, it was already dinner time. We don`t know where the day went, but I wasn`t in the mood to explore the town at night (as La Paz is one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in terms of theft).
– So I convinced Colin we should take a taxi to dinner across town…at Wagamama. I love Wagamama`s in England and even found one in Denmark and Turkey, but sadly…this Wagamama was not the same noodle house I was expecting. At least it turned out to be a yummy Japanese dinner so good to explore another part of town and keep a mellow first night.
– The first full day in La Paz was full of adventure. We headed out to the Mercado de Hechiceria (or The Witch market). This has to be one of the most unusual markets I have ever been to. At first, Colin and I wandered and wandered the streets looking for the entrance…but then we realized it was all little stalls and what we were looking for was right under our noses. They sell local handicrafts plus potions, odd items to cure sickness (like toucan beaks and dried frogs). The main item they sell are Llama fetus (feti?) If you are building a new home, you are supposed to bury a llama fetus beneath the cornerstone as an offering for good luck. The ladies were trying to sell me one and even thrust one into my hand to hold. Too bad Colin wasn´t quick with the camera then as that was quite a site with me holding this dried llama fetus. I asked how much they cost and found out the small ones were 30 Bolivianos or BS ($4.50), medium were 60 BS ($8.50) and the larger ones were 100 BS ($15). The small could fit in my palm, the medium was about 1 foot tall and the large were about 2 feet tall. It was really sad as there were so many fetus, but this is part of the culture and I just kept telling myself these fetus must have been the runt of the liter and never would survive on their own.
– After all the Llama fetus, we headed down to the Iglesia de San Francisco (maybe a little time at the church would heal all the horror from the llama fetus). This was another huge church which was stunning from the outside. Once inside, it was odd…as there was music, but it was more of techno dance music. It really didn`t belong in the church and I could only think they were preparing for some other event and testing the sound. It didn`t have a very holy sound to it so we left. For me, it was more fun to walk around the church and people watch. We saw the little shoe shine boys wearing sky masks. Shining shoes is such a low level job, yet young boys do it to support their families or to pay for school, but they must wear the sky mask to hide their face and not bring shame to their families. I did like how the one we have a picture of is wearing a GAP sweatshirt…maybe a nice tourist gave it to him.
– La Paz is full of markets and once I started to see things to buy, I kept buying. I was surprised how inexpensive everything was and Colin was teasing me as I kept buying. It started with me stall shopping at the flower market. So many beautiful flowers for nothing, then we saw a little folding hairbrush and mirror. I have the same thing from Sephora that I paid $10 for and here it was the same one for $0.80. So I needed a new one. Then we found more cheap batteries for our flashlight, then we found cheap DVD that were great quality and I got the whole 6th season of Sex and The City for $5 (and this was over $100 in the US). The final deal of the day was a deck of UNO cards, which Colin and I have had lots of fun playing already waiting for meals which tend to take an hour or more in Bolivia. So sauces shopping for so little money!
– That night, we decided we were ready for some local food and culture and headed to a Peña show. This is a folk-music venue with traditional Andean music, guitar shows, dancing and singing. Colin wanted to make sure we got a table (as they serve dinner too), so we went right when they open at 8:30pm and the show started at 9. To our surprise, we were the only ones there and when the show started, the families of the performers filled in the front tables (playing cards) so it looked fuller. By the end of the show, 2 other couples came, but it wasn`t even half full. All in all, we had a great time as the music was great as was the dancing and costumes. They even got both of us up on stage to dance in the show. More fun audience participation I guess. They kept asking us three more times, but we both felt we did out part once and didn`t need to dance more.
– Our final day in La Paz was spent wandering around more streets, markets and up to the Presidential Palace… you would never know that was a palace if there weren`t the guards out front. We spent an hour people watching in the square from shoe shiners that kept asking to shine our sneakers, to women selling some sort of jello cup with cream on top to little kids running around feeding pigeons. It was nice to just soak in the people, and I still find myself staring at the local women with the traditional dress, bowlers hat and two long braids down their backs.
– That was enough with La Paz….we heard all about the thefts and luckily were very careful and didn´t have any problems. Unfortunately, our last day, I met a couple that got robbed at the San Francisco church (on Palm Sunday) as it was so crowded…and they also met four others that did that day. So all my hard clutching to my bag and very heads up awareness paid off and we were safe from bad thieves.
– Off to Lake Titicaca in the morning…
Logistics:
Hotel Estrella Andina – This was $28 a night for the room and was in the perfect part of town to explore plus cable TV which was a nice way to relax after so many exhausting walks up stairs in the high altitude.