I love La Paz

Even though I am travelling for 5 1/2 months in South America, I´m still moving pretty fast. It is rare that I spend more than 3 nights in any one place. I stayed in La Paz for almost 2 weeks. I think it was a combination of loving it because I stayed so long, and staying so long because I loved it. Raced there from Peru to meet my friends, Muz and Brooke, and made it just in time for a big Christmas Dinner at the hostel! Had a great time, and Christmas Eve is, apparently a big night out on the town - who knew? So, of course, we did our part. My first week was a little more of the same (after 3 weeks of travelling a good deal by myself and staying in non-hostels, often in my own room, I was ready for some socializing!)... then I got sick, which took me down for a few, then I went to the jungle (see previous blog.)

But it was my second week in La Paz, after I returned from the jungle, when I really got to know the city and grew to love it. Oh, where to begin. First of all - the market. Now, I´ve been to plenty of markets in South America, but this one is something special. And it was even more grand because it was Christmas time! It goes on forever and ever. One of my favorite areas was the dessert area - churros, and all kinds of sugary concoctions. But what they were selling was not the reason I liked it. There was stall after stall, 15? 20? all decorated the same way - lined with furry blankets with giant animal pictures on them on all sides of the stall, and then they all had TVs playing the same cartoon - I think it was the Lion King, actually. Like it´s own trippy little world in there. Then, there is the witches market up the street. It smells like anise when you walk by. There they sell all kinds of herbs and potions and little mini shrines of things that you want to wish for in the coming year, all things in minitature - cars, etc. And, let´s not forget the llama fetuses, which are a bit disturbing. Not sure what they do with those.

But you can really buy anything in the market - and it´s all in sections. I needed some new shoes and got lost in the shoe section which stretched for block after block. Many of the stalls sell random things, each for under a dollar. I bought some things, just because I could - batteries, etc. Wish I bought more - as I am now writing this from expensive Argentina! And on every corner you can get fresh Salteñas - these little empanada like morsels with a meat stew and a sweet sauce inside, delicious! One of my favorites was this guy right down the street from my hostel who was there every day shouting over and over, un Boliviano KlEEnex (one Boliviano is 1/7 of a USD).

OK, besides the market - I loved the contrasts
that I got to experience there. For most of the time I stayed in a hostel in the Centro, right near the market. It´s busy, it´s sort of organized chaos, it´s dense. You risk your life walking across the street each day. It´s fabulous in that dense city life sort of way. Mostly indiginous people, the women in their bowler hats and their poofy skirts. And then, I got to experience the Zona Sur. Wow - is this still La Paz? The daughter of my mother´s friend lives there and I stayed with her for 2 nights. It was great seeing her life, which is full and quite interesting. She is a teacher in the Zona Sur and also runs a volunteer organization in a village called Sorata outside of La Paz, coordinating medical care for the people that live there (their website) http://www.prosorata.org/. She is a mountain climber and has lots of mountain climbing adventuring friends, and teacher friends, and Bolivian friends from Sorata. Such an interesting and full ex-pat life! But let me get back to this neighborhood which blew me away, coming from the Centro... I felt like I was in L.A. Fancy clothing shops, fancy restaurants, fancy salons (OK, I admit I did get a cut and color while I was there...), fancy cafes. The streets are wide and clean, not cramped and filthy like the Centro. On the street where she lives there are guards in front of all the houses, and big fences around them. People drive SUVs. There are packs of trendily dressed teens hanging out in front of the fancy shops. Amy´s house is lovely, and it was so nice to be in a place that felt like a real home. And Amy took me on a great
day hike just 20 min outside the city, with views of the entire city below!

Some other random reasons... there is a big mountain looming over the city (Illimani) just like Mt. Rainier!

Check this billboard out - go La Paz!

Fever in the Jungle

The jungle tour. Well, I had passed up taking a jungle tour in Peru and Ecuador, waiting to visit the Amazon in Bolivia because it was supposed to be cheaper. Then I got sick in La Paz and had a fever for several days before leaving for the jungle. Comfort sounded nice. Met an Aussie couple, Lyndall and Jason, who were planning to stay in a fancy ¨Eco Lodge¨, called Chalalan, and I signed on to their plan. This was mainly because I didn´t have the energy to figure anything out myself, but I did also hear good things about Chalalan, one of the few lodges run by a particular community, San Jose de Uchupiamonas, and all the money goes back to that community. Whew, blew a third of the monthly budget in 3 days!

This is rainy season in Bolivia. The town where you start the Amazon trips, Rurrenabaque, has a grass runway and planes don´t fly in or out when there has been a lot of rain. Hmm... Held up in La Paz for a day because of a heavy rainstorm. Finally made it there - New Year´s Eve in Rurre, woo hoo! Then left the next day for our 6 hour boat ride up the river to the jungle eco lodge. It was pouring, pouring rain. We did have a sort of roof on the boat, but I was told to sit up front where there was no protection and got pummeled with rain. Not being prepared, or knowing what to expect, I was wearing light non-quick dry clothes and got soaked to the bone - pants, shoes, socks. Buried my head in my jacket and just tried to tough it through, but I started shivering uncontrollably. Guess the trip sort of kicked my fever back in and I was a mess. The best part was that 4 1/2 hours into the 6 hour trip our guide asked me if I wanted to move to the back. I could have killed him. Finally arrived and I ran ahead of the group the mile or so to the lodge, just anxious to get warm and dry. Who knew you could get borderline hypothermic in the jungle? After a bit of a rest we did make it out for a jungle hike that afternoon and then I crashed, exhausted from the boat ride. The next day was an all day jungle trek. The rain forest is, of course, an amazing place. We did see some animals... lots of monkeys, mccaws, snakes. Alas, no jaguars! Perhaps we would have seen more animals if the Austrian woman in our group refrained from smoking throughout the hike! Anyway, one of the most exciting points of the trek was when our guide told us about the garlic tree. He cut some bark from the trunk and handed it all around. It did, indeed, smell like garlic. He said the people from his community used it to cook with and they also rubbed it on their skin for a mosquito repellant. I immediately started rubbing it all over my skin. After a few minutes, he added, oh, but foreigners shouldn´t eat it or use it on their skin because it is too strong and they will vomit. Once again, information that would have been useful earlier - thanks, Ivan! Of course, I am so psychosomatic I started feeling all funky. I´m sure it had nothing to do with having just hiked in the heat for 5 hours. Took a night canoe ride to search for caimans... and we found plenty. Headed back the next day. This time I sat further back in the boat! I am glad I went, but for a ¨luxury trip¨ it was hardly comfy and easy. Oh, I almost forgot, had a little friend who liked to live in my toilet!!

But, the biggest adventure turned out to be the trip back to La Paz! It was still raining when we returned to Rurre and our flight wasn´t leaving. It wasn´t leaving the next day either. Rurrenabaque is not a town where you want to hang out for long, so the second day we decided to brave the infamous bus trip. 18 hours in the dry season, now more like 20. Well, it was all that and then some. Crappy bus, crappy roads. We only took the bus 14 hours and then switched to a taxi for the last 4. The bus ride was good comedy throughout, really. One passenger had bought a seat for her 2 dogs. Another had bought 2 seats for herself, so she could be more comfortable. But somebody would continue to sit in her extra seat. For most of the ride it was a guy with a monkey. That´s right, I said monkey, a baby in a little sack. This was in the back of the bus, right next to Lyndall, Jason and I. There was an indiginous women in the very back row, right next to one of our seats (we alternated, thank God!). Her 3 daughters, who were not small, did not have seats and so were squeezed next to her in a non-seat or on the floor. My favorite point of the trip was when the bus guy came to the back to tell the monkey guy he had to get up, that this woman had bought 2 seats. So, he did, and moved back to his official seat, occupied by one of the daughters - and she got up and immediately sat in that woman´s extra seat. It was brilliant! The 4 hour taxi ride proved to be almost worse than the bus - there were 9 of us, and a dog, crammed into a wagon intended for 6. Went through all sorts of interesting positions trying to fit. Needless to say, I limped for 2 days after that trip! It sure was nice to get back to La Paz...