Day 1 - La Paz

After 3 flights I arrived in La Paz at approximately 6:45am. After customs I headed for the nearest ATM as I knew there was one at the airport, but unfortunately my Halifax debit card wouldn't work! And so I had to use my credit card which worked fine. I also had plenty of American dollars on me but I didn't see the point in exchanging these again. I will look into my debit card issue later.

I soon found one of the local airport buses to take me into central La Paz, the driver and some of his mates were all very helpful. I stored my backpack on one of the seats and had another for myself as there was no storage available. The driver soon indicated I would have to pay double, which I thought was good of him! It was only right and I didn't have any problems with this.

It was great heading down into La Paz, descending from approximately 4000 metres to 3650 metres! Seeing the ‘Cholas Pacenas’ (the Aymara and Mestia women dressed in voluminous skirts and bowler hats) was amazing, and some even getting on my bus! Before jumping off at the Plaza San Francisco, I paid the driver's assistant 8 Bolivianos (about 1 American dollar), which is far cheaper than the 10 dollars I would have had to have paid for a taxi!

Bus from airport (El Alto) heading down to La Paz

I then grabbed my map and made my way to Hostal Cruz de los Andes (which was booked back in England).  I found it without any problems after about 20 minutes of walking, and was greeted at the reception by a nice friendly man who told me my room would be ready in 30 minutes. He invited me to have breakfast, which was a continental kind of buffet style thing, and it was all very tasty and I was also served some scrambled eggs. It was still only 9am when I finished my breakfast and afterwards I checked into my room and discovered it had wonderful artwork scenery on one of the walls. I took a shower and chilled a little on my bed for a while.

Later in the morning I decided to explore La Paz and visited the Museo de la Coca (11 Bolivianos), which gave a good overview of the history of the coca leaf. Afterwards I visited the next door restaurant and had pork and chips with a pot of 'matte de coca' to help with the effects of altitude I was clearly experiencing! The food was ok, if not a little expensive and the chips were rock solid which caused part of a filling to break off!

La Paz

Chola Lady in La Paz

I later walked over to Plaza Murillo and spent a little time around here watching all the locals feeding the masses of pigeons! From here I headed over to Jaen Street which is the best preserved colonial street in La Paz. I was still feeling very tired from my flights and decided to head back to my hotel. On the way I stopped off at the restaurant called '100% Natural' (Sagarnaga Street) for a meal consisting of chicken and avocado with a large milk shake, which was very nice and at a reasonable price.

Plaza Murillo in La Paz

Chicken and avocado with a selection of sauces!

I returned to my room at about 2pm and decided to sleep for as long as I could. In total I slept (on and off) for 15 hours and awoke at 6am feeling a lot better!