So, i finally made it back to La Paz (the top of which is shown in the pic here, the view of La Paz as you come down into the valley is wicked.. although this was taken from a moving car so not the best depiction of it!!!)... time is running out for me fast and so having spent a lot of time in La Paz already I didn't want to waste too much more time there.... it was too late to do anything about that by the time I got back that Saturday night so instead i found Emily who was still at El Solario... (once again I'd scored my own room as they had no dorms available and I have to say i was loving.. i think I might be a little over the dorm thing.. for a while at least!!) Anyway... i found Emily and her friend from home, Dan, along with an Aussie girl; Bec who I met in the hostel just after i arrived back and we headed to Olivers (obviously) for some food. I was shattered from the long day so have to admit it wasn' the usual Saturday night La Paz has to offer and my bed won over socialising pretty easily!!
The next day, being Sunday... and me having not got up all that early, it's fair to say, was also a bit of a wash out in terms of organising my escape route from one of Bolivia's capitals and so it was spent wandering round the witches market.. attempting to meet a hungover Chris (the aussie) for lunch but being met with a note rescheduling... written at 8am that morning, whilst still in the pub... knowing he was about to go home to bed and not by any stretch of the imagination make it back out of bed in time to meet me for lunch... hey, at least this Chris left a note eh!! ;0) Anyway... we met for dinner instead although I actually read his note wrong and it was really only by chance that he bumped into me... oops!! The night did what La Paz does best and sucks you in, not letting you leave until the morning... along with Bec, the Aussie girl from the hostel, we stayed at Olivers til late then moved onto to La Luna for some more drinks then back to Oli's house (owner of Olivers Travels) for a few more.. before we knew it, it was 0730 in the morning and we were only just getting home...just as Em was getting up to go do Death Road!! When will I learn.. and how many times have i said that since I've been in South America.. oops! Pic here is me and Em at the Halloween party.... don't ask re the Christmas hat... random I know!!This was where i should've known just to stay in bed and not attempt to do anything sensible... but oh no... here I was hangover from hell, and hell bent on booking my flight out of here asap!!! As if i was going to make a practical, sane decision having had about 2 hours sleep!! I had a couple of thoughts up my sleeve as to my route from here on... they involved Argentina mostly. And my 2 decided options were fly to either Iguazu or Buenos Aires with the intention of going to Iguazu from there. Now, normally speaking the obvious thing to do would be to fly to Iguazu then go to Buenos Aires from there.
For the record I didn't really want to fly anywhere but thanks to my ticket home being about to expire and STA/Qantas/BA not being at all flexible and allowing me to extend it I had no choice... honestly, anyone would think I'd been away for a year and was just getting greedy!! ;0)
Anyway... long story short, the agent I was speaking to could get me a ticket to Iguazu for $400 or a ticket to Buenos Aires for $338... she kept going on about how pricey it was to Iguazu, which prob jst meant she earnt more commision from the BA flight but hungover Flooze here didn't quite have the brain power to compute that so just went ahead and agreed with her and booked the Buenos Aires flight!!! Dumbass!!!!
Anyway.... we'll come back to that later when I explain how I rectified that once i took the flight... for now... La Paz.... the rest of the day was pretty much a write off. I managed a small amount of shopping and internet time and 2 meals at the same place... Luna Coffee.... when the guy in there said it was nice to see me again I realised maybe I'd been dining alone in the same place a little too much!! ;0) but bless him... he was very friendly! I actually ended up having 2 dinners that night as when I got back to the hostel Em had just got back from surviving Death Road (although she did take a little tumble poor thing!) and enticed me into going for Tapas with them. It was a yum meal but I have to say I was rubbish company and didn't last long before the thought of my bed won and I headed home to sleep.... it was bliss!!!The next day was Halloween.... although I had wanted to be getting on my way it was quite a good day to be in La Paz... there was a fancy dress party being held at Olivers that night. After lunch (at Coffee Luna... again!!) the afternoon was spent at the Witches market with Em, shopping to our hearts content, bartering with all the ladies on the stalls and getting that Christmas shopping done.... it's not like I'm going to be able to afford to buy anyone anything when I get home so Bolivian prices are your only hope of pressies from me people!! ;0) (Pic on the left here is Chris (aussie) and I at the Halloween party! He clearly had done the dressing up thing.. at least I hope that's why he had eyeliner on!!! Below from left to right is Dan, me, Em, Andrea and her boyf... they were a lovely couple we met both living in La Paz).
Once I'd exhausted the shopping options and relieved the market of pretty much half their stock I headed back to pack before hitting Oliver's with the others.... I didn't dress up as had to leave for my flight at 4am. I had fully intended to go home at 11ish and get some sleep but that young Emily is a bad influence ... heehee... and somehow 11ish became 3ish and i never made it to bed...!!! oops! The day that followed was hell thanks to that but the party was fun and it was a good send off from my time in La Paz!! It had been fun and La Paz and Bolivia as a whole are wicked... I still hadn't managed to do all the things I wanted to do there, I didn't get to Sucre or Potosi or the Jungle which is a shame but hey, it's on the list of places to come back to so one day.... xx
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