Day 5: La Paz

I realize I haven't actually shown the house where we were staying.  So this is it.  The windows on the very top were the windows we looked out of every morning.

This was one of our views.  If we woke up early enough, we could hear the distinct honking of the gas trucks as they came to deliver gas to the residents.  A very Bolivian sound.

This was our last day in La Paz, and there were still some things we needed to attend to.  After waking up, we set off to visit Martha at the Libreria, as we had a gift to give her.

Here's Jo with Martha and some of his aunts, who I couldn't keep track of.  Jo's family when we were down there was an ever-revolving flow of faces.

Jo really wanted to visit the neighborhood where he grew up, Obrajes.  I'm sure it must have been strange visiting his childhood haunts over a decade later.  But I was touched by his memory of the most random things.  Take, for example, this tiny little shop that he used to visit as a child.  He remembered where it was and he remembered the man who ran it.  He stopped in to say hi; here they are.  This sweet old man was tickled pink that Jo had come back to visit.  He insisted on giving us a free Fanta and Coke, and the two of them chatted about various things for a bit.

We also visited the apartment where he used to live with Martha.  He told me about having to walk up a steep hill to get there, and he wasn't joking.

It must have been steeper than he remembered, because he had a little trouble getting up...

...but he eventually got back up on his feet and made it to the top.

Here's a little pampered pooch who made sure we knew it would be unwise to trespass.

And here's the view from the gate to Jo's old apartment.

We continued walking to visit some of Jo's old friends' houses.  This section of Obrajes was older and cobbled and absolutely lovely.

But still with its fair share of dogs.

Look at this street; isn't it lovely?  This section of town seemed like a different city.  It was quiet and shaded and birds were chirping in the trees.  It was beautiful.

This is the gate to one of the houses Jo remembered an old friend living in.

We took a little trail up a hill and were rewarded with this view.  Jo told me a story about climbing up the sandstone hills as a child to build fires.  What a hooligan.

We walked back down in order to get something to eat.  Along the way, Jo found this door.

It was part of this church, where his grandma volunteered.

We were on the hunt for saltenas.  We found a little restaurant that looked promising, and its neighbor happened to be a jean store that advertised some rather interesting goods for sale.  To start off with, how about a size 120 pair of pants?

Or how about a pair of pants with a thong built in?  I really wanted to buy a pair of these, but I didn't have enough money. Oh well, maybe next time...

We made it to the shop, which seemed to be quite popular with the locals.  There was only one variety of saltena available, and it wasn't vegetarian, so I had to watch while Jo dug in...

Like a true Bolivian, he didn't spill a drop of the juice inside the saltena.  This is a feat that is much harder than it sounds.  The inside of a saltena is like a soup, and only a practiced saltena eater can manage to keep their plate clean.  When I had tried my first saltena the day before, half of the filling ended up on the plate.

The day was awastin' and we had errands to run, so after Jo's saltena we took off.  We made a stop at the grocery store, where I was fascinated by Bolivians' tendency to put everything in bags: yogurt, milk, condiments, mayonnaise...  We picked up a few supplies for our travels, since we would be leaving in the evening.  Bagged mayonnaise didn't make the cut, but we did get some more Bolivian cheese to chow down on.

We also stopped by this little flower stand to grab a bouquet for the Alipazes.

And then we went home to have the most amazing lunch, which I didn't get pics of.  The Alipazes were nice enough to prepare an amazing traditional Bolivian spread for us, which was absolutely delicious.  The menu included lima beans, grilled cheese, boiled corn on the cob, and, my favorite, sopa de mani (peanut soup.)   I was stuffed by the end.

After packing and spending a few minutes playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego," which we had found in the game pile.  It was time to go.  Luiz had to make a quick stop at his office.  He was so proud of this globe.  He told Jo to go check it out...

And we both cracked up when we realized it opened up and became a hidden liquor stash!

Ohhhhhh, yeaahhhhh.

Here's Jo and Ricky visiting and talking about, what else?, soccer.  I really liked Ricky a lot and I thought he was a really interesting guy.  He slept in a lot and lounged around the house eating rice, because he was on some special diet or something.  He was a funny guy.

This is Illimani, the highest mountain of the Cordillera Real, the mountain range to the south of Bolivia, and the second highest peak in Bolivia, at 21,622 feet!  It had been elusive during our stay, hiding in the clouds.  It finally peeked out to say 'bye.

Luiz wrapped up his business and we were off to the bus station.  On the way, we saw this bear...

...and this street dog...

...and, before we knew it, we were at the bus station.  After saying our farewells, we were on our own.

I lovelovelove bus stations.  They are a place of possibilites, of activity, and of energy.  La Paz had been fun, but I was ready to hit the road.  We bought our tickets and had about an hour to kill, so we sat down and did some crossword puzzles (Oh, yes, we carry crossword puzzles with us when we travel) and snapped a few pictures.

We had booked a "semi-cama" bus, which meant the seats reclined a little.  You can't tell, but Jo really was excited.  He just acts surly because he wants to act cool for the camera.

I, however, had no such reservations.  I was so excited!

  Shortly after this picture was taken, we boarded our bus and took off.  We had a twelve hour drive across the altiplano ahead of us.  We made one stop to pick up some more passengers, which ended up taking almost 45 minutes.  It was fine, though, since a smooth-talking toothbrush salesman jumped on the bus and gave a very convincing presentation.  The sample toothbrushes he handed out for people to observe seemed to go over well with the bus; people were examing those suckers as if they'd never seen such a thing before.  In the states, it would take a talking, guitar-playing toothbrush to elicit such a reaction.  But the other bus passengers seemed to find the humble toothbrush fascinating.  Pretty funny.

  I would have liked to have seen the altiplano, but by the time we got there it was dusk, and soon thereafter it was full on dark.  I was told I wasn't missing much; mainly a large expanse of close to nothing.  Still, there is a large population of Bolivians who make their homes on this extreme, windswept land, which I find fascinating.  Jo chatted about it as we gazed out into the dark landscape speckled with the lights shining from houses.  It's a cold, hard life, but for some, there is simply no other choice.  It's a hard-won way of life that I can only imagine must harden a person both physically and mentally.

Sleep followed soon after.  It wasn't the most comfortable sleep in the world, but we were too excited to care.