A 9 hour overnight bus got us to La Paz about 6:30am. Straight to a cheap hotel (wasn't quite as cheap as we thought, we had payed for one night when we thought we had paid for two...but was still cheap). Didn't do much that day, Steph needed a rest, so I sat and played guitar all afternoon.
The next day we explored the city a little, La Paz is your average South American metropolis apart from the fact that the city sits at 3600m and is really hilly, so all these massive buildings look like they are about to fall off the side of the hill. The views are pretty crazy when you are coming back into the city, some deep valleys surrrounded by hills and all covered by buildings and houses. The hilliness is hard work at that altitude even when strolling around the city.
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| This picture doesn't do the view justice |
We checked out the instrument museum where you can play some of the weird and wonderful instruments of the world. The museum was guitar central, some with two necks, one with five necks, some with multiple sound holes...Even had a stuffed three toed sloth with a tiny baby in tow sitting outside next to some of the instuments, maybe a little out of place. We checked out the presidential palace, we must of looked a little suspect as one of the many security guards came over and told as to keep moving...We caught up with Wilson for dinner and a couple too many cheap cocktails (damn long island ice tea are hard work at 3600m)...
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| Seen better days? |
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| At least this guy didn't get made into a guitar like a lot of his friends in the museum |
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| what do you play the fifth one with??? (Steph's comment) |
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| mmmm stuffed sloth with baby |
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| and we think our bank queues are bad.... |
The next morning to the airport to fly to Rurrenebarque to check out Bolivia's share of Amazon jungle. Our flight was due at around midday and on the way out to the airport it started to sleet! Not so good for flights......while we waited for check in after being told to come back in an hour we watched the sleet become snow, snow and more snow. Every hour we would go back to the counter and get told to come back in an hour until about 3:30pm. The weather had cleared a little and the first plane had taken off since early in the morning. We finally checked in at around 4pm but were told we may still not fly....we clear security and wait at the gates as we watch them prepare the plane to leave, with our luggage on the tarmac (in the rain mind you). After a while one of the staff comes over and tells us the plane has been cancelled, the airport of Rurre closes at 6pm (large grass runway with no lights) so we have to come back the next morning for the 6am flight. We headed back into La Paz for the night and found a cheap hostel.
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| snowwww....not good for flying |
The flight the next morning was fun, in a tiny little duel propellor plane with 18 passengers, we watched them hose off the ice from the plane while we were waiting to board. We could see out the front window on the plane, the pilots could barely see through all the ice...
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| The Beni river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon |
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| The plane and "runway" |
