Thursday, November 29, 2007 Going to Bolivia!
Got into Arica at 3 am, found a taxi to take us into town to find a hostel.
Had no plan, no idea what to do except we knew we wanted to go to La Paz asap (despite warnings not to go from our program director b/c of protests in Sucre over silver mining and the fact that US citizens need a visa to enter Bolivia starting Dec. 1. So are plan was to go the 29th and leave for Peru the 30th before we needed the visa!)
On the way into the city, pass a bus headed for La Paz, taxi driver turns around, waves it down. Nick talks to drive, 3 seats left but 4 of us. We nearly got on a random bus to La Paz at 3:30 in the morning!
Went to hostel, slept for 4 hours. At 9 same taxi driver brought us to bus station, get on bus to La Paz.
Bus to La Paz, 7 hours
Delcious lunch with wine
Meet Chilean rapper traveling with wife and son to La Paz then Lima to do concerts
Chile/Bolivia Border- nearly leave Natalie and Chris
Lots of crappy movies, really load
Make book list
Beautiful scenery, two huge volcanos,
can obviously feel increase in altitiude.
Get to La Paz around 7 pm, incredibly city in a valley shaped like a bowl, nearly overflowing. But this bowl is above (way way above sea level, so no worries about flooding!)
Buy ticket to Puno, Peru for the next day at 2 pm.
Ask taxi driver to take us to a hostel near the center of town. Brings us to hotel, pay 3 dollars each for the night.
Walk to art museum, awesome
p.s. with all the walking, the altitude is very obvious. I felt winded and my toes and fingers tingled like they were asleep. And we were all a little giddy. We decided to skip wine at dinner.
Walk to dinner to restaurant called Bella Vista (Beautiful View) on top of Hotel Presidente, with 360 view of city, recommended as best restaurant in La Paz in Frommers
Ate delicious, huge trout from Lake Titicaca, salad bar, water and dessert for about 10 USD$. Boys had huge steak for same price.
Walked back to hotel (slowly) and went to bed exhausted but happy
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