La Paz was pretty much a write-off in terms of culture, however we did get very well aquainted with the hospital! The English speaking doctor was lovely (as were the others... didn`t mean for that to sound language-ist!) and the canteen did a mean coffee and pastry! Unfortunately all this time spent in the hospital meant that something was wrong and it turned out poor Rach has fractured her ankle. Ow! She`d been hobbling around on it for 2 days! After many phone calls to her insurance company, airlines etc. she`s decided to head home to recover and postpone the rest of her trip until next year. It`s so gutting for her and so upsetting, and it`s made me realise how quickly this dream could be over. Fingers (and toes) crossed that nothing like that happens to me or Kat.
La Paz isn`t the most convenient city to be on crutches in... in fact it is possibly the hilliest town in the world ever! So with Rach`s leg in cast we spent most of our time helping her drown her sorrows in the hostel bar. And what a bar it was! Loki La Paz is definately the best hostel we`ve been to so far. Great rooms, great building, great staff, great friends, great atmosphere, GREAT happy hour and a free breakfast till 1pm... just what you need after a night of partying!
The witches market was a bizarre experience, dead baby llamas strung up by their legs and all array of smells, in fact the whole of La Paz was quite a bizarre experience. The setting is stunning, tucked between towering snow topped mountains, so the view from afar is beautiful, but up-close and personal it`s not so pretty. It does have a great atmosphere though and the hussle and bussle is never ending! We had 3 days partying hard, said an emothional goodbye to rach and then headed to Copacobana with 2 friends from the hostel to spend time at Lake Titicaca.
It was a trying bus journey after a very heavy night out and once we arrived in Copacobana it was all Kat, Yvonne, Eric and I could do to put one foot in front of the other. Kat and I were heading for a hostel we`d read about, however with our hangovers, heavy bags and the midday heat we gave up and fell into the closest one we could find. After a couple of hours kip we felt revived and went for a walk, only to find the hostel we were looking for was only 2 doors further up, and looked a lot nicer!! Oh well!!
Copacobana is cute, arty town but obviously only there for the tourists. We met up with Eric and Yvonne for dinner and thought we`d found a real bargain when we can across a restaurant that had a set menu of 3 courses for 22 Bolivianos (less than 2 pounds!). Trout is supposedly the speciality here and all around Lake Titicaca so we ordered and eagerly awaited our dinner... no wonder it was so cheap!!!! The portions must have been designed for borrowers! If you weren´t looking closely you could have easily missed the lemon pie we had for desert!
Heading into Peru tomorrow to visit the other side of the lake and stay on the islands... bye bye Bolivia. It`s been emotional!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Who are Eric and Yvonne?
2 friends from La Paz... Lovely Irish couple!
hi Vicci
I left a message on Kat's page but noticed that she isn't bloggin at the mo.so might not get it. So, just to reiterate, Happy 2009 to both of you, sounds like you had a spectacular end to 2008 and well done on doing the Inca Trail.
Laura
x
Post a Comment