Bolivia: La Paz

It had been 3 months almost to the day that I had first stepped foot in the Santiago Airport.  Seeing it again gave me a rush of excitement sending signals that I was going someplace new, I was going to experience new.  It was a bit of déjà vu that I welcomed with open arms.

            After successfully getting a Bolivian visa, I crossed the border at about 4:30 am.  We grabbed a cab and drove through the highest capital city in the world.  This bowl shaped city sits at over 3660 meters (12,000 feet) above sea level.  I could feel the change of altitude through my whole body.  Walking up the stairs to the hostel left me panting and my ears were still trying to pop.  After finishing up my night’s sleep and getting a bit more acclimatized, I stepped out into the day light of La Paz.  The streets were busy, the sidewalks lining this city of hills were crowed, and there bright colors everywhere.  Bolivian men and women could be seen on every calle (street) walking up hills carrying things on their backs that could be the size of a large dog.  These oddly shaped packages were often wrapped in a very bright patterned fabric and thrown over the shoulders of the small Bolivian people.  It looked like the South America that you see in the books. 

            Everywhere you turned was a vendor of some sort.  If you wanted anything from dried pig skin to batteries, you could find it on the streets on La Paz.  Even better than the myriad of items was the fact that they cost next to nothing!  I was particularly in love with the numerous stands with an abundant number of fruits of all sizes and colors.  I first stopped to try a piece of the freshly cut pineapple, I wasn’t hungry but it made my mouth water just by looking at it.

These first two days in Bolivia were spent gathering and organizing plans for the much anticipated trip up north to the Amazon.  After visiting and pricing many different agencies, my friends and I finally settled on a combination tour.  We were going to spend 3 days in “las pampas” or the grasslands and 2 days in “la selva” or the jungle/rain forest.  This also included a 1 hour plane ride on a dinky little plane in place of an 18 hour bus ride.  I was happy to skip out on the bus after hearing the route follows the edge of cliff and the bus ride is usually spent praying for dear life. 

            After all the plans were made and preparation items were bought, we decided to find the best way to get a view of the city.  We hopped into a cab (which cost next to nothing about two dollars to go anywhere you want within city limits) and told the driver to take us somewhere to see a view of the city.  After about a 25 minute drive to the top of the bowl, we got out of the car and the entire city was literally at my feet.  This “vista” or view was breath taking with the snow capped mountains in the back and the overwhelming colors of the city standing out.

            The day was followed by a good dinner to prepare ourselves for the next few days.  I tried a silver of the restaurant specialty, filet of llama.  My review is that it was a lot like steak meat and definitely not bad when paired with a good sauce. 

            On the morning of day 3 we woke up to catch the 6 am flight to Rurrenabaque (I can finally say this town’s name correctly after much practice).  This small town in the North of Bolivia is completely dominated by tourism.  Everywhere you turn is a different travel agency along side a store that sells travel size packages of shampoo, toilet paper (they never provide any), and giant bottles of water (which I lived with).  Also every restaurant I went to was only occupied by other tourists.  All the menus were in English and everybody played old music from the states (a common theme I’ve found in South America).  It was a little sad for me to see that the face of this town revolved around pleasing the foreigners, but it looked like they were surviving. 

            The next step of the trip was not exactly a fun one.  We got into a jeep and made a three hour trip through the middle of nowhere on one dirt road with more pot holes than even road. There were no lanes and no correct side of the road to drive on and definitely no rules about passing.  After finally arriving, we were in for another 3 hour journey to the camp where we were sleeping.  This boat trip down a long narrow stream was a little more pleasant and filled with hiding alligators, sunbathing turtles, hanging monkeys.  This stream also features the largest rodent species in the world, capybaras. These animals were funny to me because they looked like giant hamsters just prancing around in the water.  They were my favorite for entertainment purposes.

When we made it to the destination of our sleeping quarters, everybody was ready to eat and sleep.  It had been a long day full of traveling and animal watching with much more to come.