La Paz, Bolivia
16° 30' S 68° 9' W
Sep 17, 2005 01:33
Distance 250km

Choose another map, showing:


earlier Entry 9 of 18 later
You need to upgrade your Flash Player Click here to start downloading FlashPlayer!

To Bolivia

Text written in: English

FRIDAY
So we started our trip to the border. We arrived at the bus station and handed over the tickets and then we were bussled along the back streets to the locals terminal and pushed to the front of the queue and pushed this way and that until we managed to get to our seats. We hadn't got a clue what we were doing. There was departure tax to pay and everything. Then we were on our way, a bit late only 20 mins to a place called Desaguadero, which is the town at the Bolvian border. We were due to arrive at stupid o'clock in the morning. Luckily (and most wouldn't see this as lucky) our bus broke down in the middle of the desert. We really didn't mind as we slept through most of it. This meant that we arrived much later at Desaguadero 5am.We only had to wait till 7:30am till the border opened. It was mega freezing and we had to sit on a cold wall waiting desparately for the sun to come up. Luckily we bumped into some French people (never thought I'd say that) and they were really good at speaking Spanish and less so at English, so we travelled with them to La Paz and they were a great help! If they weren't there we would have been the only westerners at the border!!
SATURDAY
We arrived on the other side of the border somewhat tired and grumpy and spent a while finding a random mini bus to take us to La Paz. It was a 2 hour journey and cost the princely sum of 50p per person! We were dropped off on a random street in the capital city and then we managed by the help of our new French friends to get a bus into the centre. We then rushed around like silly buggers trying to organise our tour to the jungle and cash machine refusing to give us any money. After that ordeal we did what any self respecting Brit would do in that situation. We went to Burger King and had a Whopper meal - minutes after booking our ecotour! Then it was shopping all afternoon. Well it was so cheap we just couldn't stop!
SUNDAY
This was one of our most excellent days NOT!!! We got up early managed to find a random mini bus going to the airport for our flight to the jungle. We arrived to find our flight delayed by 4 hours. We thought that was a bit pants, but waited patiently all day. Then we checked in at 4pm and 10 mins later were told the flight was cancelled. We couldn't believe it, so now we are back in La Paz in the same hotel, still frickin' freezing...

Add to del.icio.us Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "To Bolivia":

P9180173 (The Palace in La Paz) P9180175 (View from airport!!) P9170156 (Tired Aly at border, I was trying to smile!!) P9170158 (Our random mini bus to La Paz) P9180165 (View of La Paz from hotel)
earlier Entry 9 of 18 later
You need to upgrade your Flash Player Click here to start downloading FlashPlayer!